Particle size analysis of lamb meat: Effect of homogenization speed, comparison with myofibrillar fragmentation index and its relationship with shear force

The impact of homogenization speed on Particle Size (PS) results was examined using samples from the M. longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LL) of 40 lambs. One gram duplicate samples from meat aged for 1 and 5 days were homogenized at five different speeds; 11,000, 13,000, 16,000, 19,000 and 22,000 rpm. In addition to this LL samples from 30 different lamb carcases also aged for 1 and 5 days were used to study the comparison between PS and myofibrillar fragmentation index (MFI) values. In this case, 1 g duplicate samples ( n = 30) were homogenized at 16,000 rpm and the other half (0.5 g samples) at 11,000 rpm ( n = 30). The homogenates were then subjected to respective combinations of treatments which included either PS analysis or the determination of MFI, both with or without three cycles of centrifugation. All 140 samples of LL included 65 g blocks for subsequent shear force (SF) testing. Homogenization at 16,000 rpm provided the greatest ability to detect ageing differences for particle size between samples aged for 1 and 5 days. Particle size at the 25% quantile provided the best result for detecting differences due to ageing. It was observed that as ageing increased the mean PS decreased and was significantly ( P < 0.001) less for 5 days aged samples compared to 1 day aged samples, while MFI values significantly increased ( P < 0.001) as ageing period increased. When comparing the PS and MFI methods it became apparent that, as opposed to the MFI method, there was a greater coefficient of variation for the PS method which warranted a quality assurance system. Given this requirement and examination of the mean, standard deviation and the 25% quantile for PS data it was concluded that three cycles of centrifugation were not necessary and this also applied to the MFI method. There were significant correlations ( P < 0.001) within the same lamb loin sample aged for a given period between mean MFI and mean PS (−0.53), mean MFI and mean SF (−0.38) and mean PS and mean SF (0.23). It was concluded that PS analysis offers significant potential for streamlining determination of myofibrillar degradation when samples are measured after homogenization at 16,000 rpm with no centrifugation.