The Effects of Hot Boning and Injection Processing for Improving Eating Quality and Increasing the Demand of Cull Cow Beef

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The development of BSE in Canada devastated returns to producers for cull cows with the loss of the U.S. market.  Increased utilization of cull cow beef in domestic markets is needed to improve returns.  Problems with quality and consistency must be overcome through postmortem processing.  Injection processing of meat with phosphate compounds is now commonplace to improve palatability (tenderness, juiciness, flavor) for consumers and profitability for the meat industry.  Outside of the U.S. and Canada, hot boning of beef carcasses is used prior to fabrication of carcasses into cuts.  Research has shown that specific food grade chemicals can be used on hot boned muscles to enhance product quality in red branded beef. The objective of this study is to examine hot boning and injection processing on improving the quality of cull cow beef.  The conventional method of chilling beef carcasses prior to carcass fabrication is compared to the process of hot boning.  In addition, injection processing with various food grade chemicals is investigated to examine the potential additive effect of hot boning and injection processing. The project examines processing effects on muscle biochemistry, product appearance, meat quality attributes, eating quality attributes, product shelf life, and food safety.  Muscle biochemistry is examined to determine the modes of actions for improving product quality.  The examination of potential treatment effects on visual appearance of the product is important to determine if products can be marketed in the fresh meat case or as cooked beef.  Laboratory and sensory evaluations of meat quality are needed to determine the effectiveness of processing techniques.  The final investigations will determine if the processing techniques can compromise food safety from the proliferation of undesirable microorganisms.   Muscles from the round, loin, and chuck will be used to determine the effectiveness of these postmortem processing techniques to enhance product quality.  If effective, adoption of these techniques will increase demand for cull cow beef and returns to producers from the marketing of cull cows.