Eating quality of commercially processed hot boned sheep meat

The aim of this work was to establish consumer perceptions of the eating quality of commercially processed hot boned sheep meat. The eating quality scores for tenderness, flavour, juiciness, and overall liking of grilled m. longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LL) were derived from untrained consumers. The animals used in this experiment were sourced from three different properties and were of various ages, breed, and sex, and had been on various quality pastures. All carcases were subjected to immobilisation, spinal discharge and high voltage electrical stimulation and boned within 2 h of slaughter. All LL samples were frozen after boning according to the system applied at the abattoir and samples kept for consumer assessment and measurement of meat quality. The results showed, on average carcases entered rigor at high temperatures with a pH of 5.95 at 29.3 °C. With an average sarcomere length of 1.68 μm, some shortening was evident and there was a significant difference between lots in sarcomere length (P < 0.05). A large percentage (82%) of samples had a pH greater than 5.8 at the time of freezing. All samples taken for shear force analysis exceeded a recommended threshold for acceptable table meat of 49 N and there was no significant difference between lots (P > 0.05). Only 13.5% of the samples met the ‘good everyday’ requirement following sensory assessment and there were significant differences between lots for eating quality traits (P < 0.05). This work clearly shows that the application of effective electrical stimulation is not sufficient to ensure that hot boned sheep meat will be suitable as a table meat. These findings highlight the need for the inclusion of other intervention techniques.