The effect of post-mortem aging on meat flavor quality in Brangus beef. Correlation of treatments, sensory, instrumental and chemical descriptors

The flavor of muscle foods is dependent upon factors such as the animal's age, breed, sex, nutritional status and manner of cooking. Most important to the final flavor of the meat is relative age in the post-mortem aging process as it is during this time that many chemical flavor components are formed (Spanier et al., 1990). These components serve either directly as flavor components or as a pool of reactive flavors and intermediates that form many of the characteristic meat flavors after cooking. The post-mortem aging process is identified with enhancement of beef sensory quality due to enhanced tenderization. While this is true for beef texture, it is not true for the overall flavor of meat. Data is shown indicating that, during post-mortem aging, desirable flavors such as beefy, brothy, browned-caramel, and sweet decline while off-flavors such as bitter and sour increase.