Impact of aging time on the quality meat from buffalo heifer

Female slaughter is of great importance for the production of meat. However, one of the reasons the culling female is due to old age, which suggest that the meat of this category may have lower quality. Thus, technologies such as aging are very important, especially for the buffalo specie which is presented as more an alternative to high quality meat. The present study evaluated the effects of different aging times on the physical characteristics of buffalo heifer meat. Water buffalo heifers (n=10; 32-36 months old; Murrah breed) were slaughtered and samples of the Longissimus thoracis were collected. Samples were subsequently aged for 0, 7, 14, and 21 days, and analyzed for shear force (SF), myofibrillar fragmentation index (MFI) and muscle color. Orthogonal polynomial contrast statements were used to test linear and quadratic effects of different aging times using SAS 9.2, considered significant when P < 0.05. Linear reduction was observed in the SF versus aging time (P = 0.0001; R2 = 0.97) while mean values of the MFI increased during aging (P = 0.0003; R2 = 0.92). For color meat, no effect (P > 0.05) of the aging times was detected for lightness (L*) and redness (a*), however, the average values of yellowness (b*) increased linearly by aging time (P = 0.003; R2 = 0.76). Despite this increase in the yellowness, data shows that subjective perceptions of the difference in color of the buffalo heifer meat were barely perceptible to human eye (Î"E0-7 = 2.41; Î"E0-14 = 2.28 and Î"E0- 21 = 3.02). Thus, the aging process improves the quality of buffalo heifer meat which showed softer after the 21st day of aging. Furthermore, changes observed in coloration are not relevant for human perception. Keywords: aging, buffaloes, color, tenderness.