Restructured low-fat cooked ham containing liquid whey fortified with lactulose.

BACKGROUND: Current health concerns have driven consumers to request products with nutritional and physiological advantages, which can be achieved by using prebiotic ingredients. Lactulose is a prebiotic with excellent functional properties and can be easily incorporated into meat products through the addition of liquid whey. This study investigated the technological and sensorial quality of restructured cooked ham elaborated without liquid whey added (control) and with liquid whey containing different contents (0, 30, 60 and 100 g kg-1 ) of lactulose. RESULTS: Liquid whey did not change any technological or sensorial characteristics of the product, but the general acceptability decreased due to addition of lactulose. Samples with higher lactulose concentrations had lower moisture content, pH and refreezing loss and increased carbohydrate content. Control and whey added samples had higher lightness and lower intense color than samples with lactulose. Liquid whey additions with higher lactulose content increased hardness and chewiness of the samples. CONCLUSION: Restructured cooked hams formulated with liquid whey and 30 g kg-1 of lactulose had minimal effects on the technological properties and sensory characteristics and, due to the possible benefits conferred by the prebiotic, is a potential alternative to provide meat products with prebiotic activity. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Comparison of Warner-Bratzler shear force values between round and square cross-section cores for assessment of beef Longissimus tenderness.

The objective of this experiment was to determine whether there is a difference between Warner-Blatzler shear force values of round (WBSF) and square (WBsSF) cross-section cores for assessment of beef tenderness. To compare the effect of core sampling, Longissimus thoracis muscles were obtained from 43 beef carcasses at 1, 14, and 28days postmortem. For each sample, tenderness was assessed by a trained sensory panel and by WBSF and WBsSF techniques. There was a strong and linear relationship (R2=0.77) between WBSF and WBsSF, but the average shear force of square cores were (P<0.05) greater than those of round cores. The WBsSF had greater repeatability (R=0.85 vs 0.81) and explained slightly more of the variation in sensory panel perception of beef tenderness (76% vs 74%) than WBSF. The results indicate that WBsSF seems to be a more precise method of measuring shear force, being little more sensitive for detecting tenderness differences than WBSF.