Relationship between collagen characteristics, lipid content and raw and cooked texture of meat from young bulls of fifteen European breeds

Variations in texture were determined for 10 day aged raw and cooked Longissimus thoracis (LT) muscle from 436 bulls of 15 European cattle breeds slaughtered at an age of 13-16 months Variations in texture were related to differences in pH 24 h post-mortem sarcomere length collagen characteristics and lipid content The shear force of cooked meat samples varied from 438 to 674 N/cm(2) Simmental Highland and Marchigiana cattle had the highest shear force values and Avilena-Negra Iberica Charolais Casina and Pirenaica cattle had the lowest values Cooked meat toughness showed a weak negative correlation to lipid content (P<0 001) but no correlation to collagen characteristics Raw meat texture measured by compression correlated positively (P<0 001) with total and insoluble collagen In conclusion collagen characteristics showed correlation to raw meat texture but not to cooked meat toughness of LT muscle in European young bulls (C) 2010 The American Meat Science Association Published by Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved