Abstract

Continuous NMR T-2 relaxation measurements were carried out on seven rabbit longissimus muscle samples in the period from 25 min to 28 h post-mortem at 200 MHz for H-1. To display differences in post-mortern pH progress and extent of changes in water characteristics during conversion of muscle to meat, three of the seven animals were pre-slaughter injected with adrenaline (0.5 mg/kg live weight 4 h before sacrifice) to differentiate muscle glycogen stores at the time of slaughter. Distributed analysis of T-2 data displayed clear differences in the characteristics of the various transverse relaxation components dependent on progress in pH, as did the water-holding capacity of samples 24 h postmortem. This reveals a pronounced effect of the progressive change in pH on the subsequent development in physical/chemical states of water during the conversion of muscle to meat. Finally, the relaxation characteristics are discussed in relation to supposed post-mortem processes of protein denaturation.

Keywords

transverse relaxation; protein denaturation; water-holding capacity; rabbit

Published in

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
2003, Volume: 51, number: 14, pages: 4072-4078
Publisher: AMER CHEMICAL SOC

UKÄ Subject classification

Food Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/jf020968+

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/85675