Meat Composition

Dr. R. EMILIN RENITTA

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR/FPT
 MEAT
• Meat – edible postmortem component
originating from live animals
• Most popular – cattle, sheep, goat, poultry,
pork,…
• Hunting – deer, bison
• Domestication – goat, cattle, pig
 MEAT

•Excluding skin-carcass component of live

animals – consist of three parts-Muscle,Fat
and Bone
•Muscle- constitutes majority of the weight
 Meat composition

• Water – 75%
• Protein – 19%
• Fat – 2.5%
• Carbohydrate – 1.6%
• Other constituents – minerals, protein
substances
• Meat color – myoglobin and haemoglobin
 WATER
• 45-75%
• Decreases with maturity and increased fat
• In muscle fiber - less in connective tissue
• Decreases when muscle fibers broken due
to chemical, mechanical, enzymatic
tenderization or salting, or change in pH
• Curing increases water content
 PROTEINS
• Sarcoplasmic proteins- metabolism
– 11.5% of muscle
– Enzymes - conversion of stored energy into
muscle power
• Myofibrillar protein
– 5.5% of muscle
– Myosin and actin
– Responsible for muscle overall structure
 FAT
• Marbling = fat throughout the muscle
• Higher marbling increase in tenderness
 CARBOHYDRATES
• Negligible
• Stored in liver as glycogen
• In muscle and blood as glucose
 VITAMINS AND MINERALS
• Vitamin B complex - no Vitamin C
• Fat soluble in liver low in A & D in red
meat
• Iron in heme and myoglobin pigments
• Zinc and phosphorus in muscle, some
copper
 COLOR
• Indicates
• Freshness
• Amount of iron
• Kind, species
• Age of animal at slaughter
• Doneness after cooking
• Curing
 PIGMENTS
• MYOGLOBIN - holds O2 in muscle
• Primary pigment in meat
• Increases with age, level of muscle exercise
• Varies with species, sex, and muscle
• Oxymyoglobin - myoglobin exposed to O2;
bright red
• Metmyoglobin - oxidation of iron molecule =
brownish red color
• HEMOGLOBIN - transport O2 and CO2
 CONNECTIVE TISSUE

• COLLAGEN
• ELASTIN
• RETICULIN
 COLLAGEN
• 22-25%-structural protein-connective tissue
• Bone and skin
• White or colorless
• Responsible for connection of fibres and
muscles
 ELASTIN
• Lesser component
• More elastic than collagen
• Holds bone and cartilage together
• Yellow color
 RETICULIN
• Very small fibers
• Network around muscle cells
• Found in younger animals
 FATTY TISSUE
• Energy storage
• Dependent on animal feed, hormones, age, genetics,
breed, biological state, nutritional status, part of
carcass cut is from
• Deposited around organs, under skin, between and
within muscles
• Held by strands of connective tissue
• Melted contributes to juiciness sensation of
tenderness and flavor
 TYPES OF FATTY TISSUE
• Adipose tissue (body fat) -around heart, kidney
• Suet - hard fatty tissue around organs (kidney and
loin), more saturated
• Subcutaneous fat - under skin, more unsaturated
• Intermuscular fat - between muscles (seam fat)
• Intramuscular fat - within muscles (marbling)
 Definitions and measurements
• Measurements
– Subjective techniques
– Objective techniques
• Visual appraisal
• Linear measurements
• Area measurements
• Density
• Anyl-ray
• Dissection
• Proximate analysis
Visual appraisal
• By visual inspection
• Lack accuracy
Linear measurements
• Simple, ruler
• Fat thickness, muscle depth and width, bone
length and thickness
Area measurements
• Acetate paper – drawing boundaries
Density
• Archimedean Principle
• Cuts of meat displace a volume equal to their own
Anyl-ray
• X-ray passed through meat sample
• To determine fat content
• Expensive method
Dissection
• Anatomy
Proximate analysis
• Analysis of chemical components – moisture,
protein, lipid, ash
• AOAC – Association of Analytical Chemists