• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.251-258
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• 2018

We investigated microbial and quality changes in wrap-packaged dry-aged beef after completion of aging and subsequent storage in a refrigerator. After 28 days of dry aging (temperature, $4^{\circ}C$; RH, approximately 75%; air flow velocity, 2.5 m/s), sirloins were trimmed, wrap-packaged, and stored at $4^{\circ}C$ for 7 days. Analyses of microbial growth, pH, volatile basic nitrogen (VBN), 2-thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance (TABRS), and instrumental color, myoglobin, and sensory evaluation were conducted on days 0, 3, 5, and 7. The results show that the number of total aerobic bacteria (TAB), yeast, and lactic acid bacteria increased with an increase in storage days, whereas no change in the growth of mold was observed during 7 days of storage. Based on the legal standard for TAB count, the estimated shelf-life of wrap-packaged dry-aged beef was predicted to be less than 12.2 days. However, the shelflife should be less than 6.3 days, considering the result of sensory quality (odor, taste, and overall acceptance). No significant change in visible appearance was also observed during 7 days of storage. The results suggest that the present quality indicators for meat spoilage (pH, VBN, and TBARS) should be re-considered for dry-aged beef, as its characteristics are different from those of fresh and/or wet-aged beef.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.266-275
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• 2019

Although the production of dry-aged beef has been increasing, most purveyors are unaware of the changes in quality that ensue after completion of the aging period and do not adhere to specific guidelines for its packaging and storage. The objective of this study was to investigate the storage stability of vacuum-packaged dry-aged beef based on changes in microbial, physicochemical, and sensory properties during refrigeration at $4^{\circ}C$ for 21 d. The total aerobic bacterial count exceeded 6 Log CFU/g at approximately day 11 and significantly increased after day 14. Freshness indicators such as pH and volatile basic nitrogen content were acceptable until day 14 and 21, respectively. Based on the evaluation of overall sensory acceptability, the dry-aged beef was acceptable until 14 d without any sensory deterioration. Therefore, vacuum-packaged dry-aged beef could be stored for 11 d at $4^{\circ}C$ without any adverse effect on its microbial and sensory quality.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.1019-1028
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• 2018

The crust that inevitably forms on dry-aged beef is usually trimmed and discarded before sale. The aim of this study was to explore methods for utilizing this crust in processed meat products. Four sirloins were dry-aged for 28 d at $4^{\circ}C$ (75% relative humidity). The crust obtained from the surface of the sirloins after completion of dry aging was lyophilized. Patties were prepared without added crust (control) or with 5% w/w crust, aerobically packaged, and stored at $4^{\circ}C$ for 7 d. Electronic nose analysis indicated that the volatile profile differed significantly between the patties with and without crust. Compared to the control patties, patties containing crust had higher flavor, tenderness, juiciness, and acceptability scores in a sensory panel evaluation (all p<0.05). In addition, patties with crust were less hard, gummy, and chewy than the control patties after 3 and 7 d of storage (all p<0.05). The number of total aerobic bacteria was higher in raw patties with crust than in the control patties during the storage (p<0.05). However, no pathogens were detected. 2-Thiobarbituric acid reactive substance values of patties containing crust were significantly lower than those of control patties after 2 and 6 d of storage (both p<0.05). Thus, crust from dry-aged beef can enhance the flavor by providing beefy and palatable flavor without a long period of dry aging.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1621-1629
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• 2019

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the physicochemical, sensory and taste characteristics of commercial, frozen, dry, and wet aged Hanwoo sirloin. Methods: Grade 2 sirloin from 6 Hanwoo steers (about 30 months old) were obtained after 5 days postmortem. Samples were assigned to four groups which were commercial beef (CON, control group), frozen beef (Hanwoo frozen, HF; 40 days in $-18^{\circ}C$ freezer), wet-aged beef (Hanwoo wet-aging, HW; 21 days), and dry-aged beef (Hanwoo dry-aging, HD; 40 days). HW and HD were stored in a $80%{\pm}5%$ relative humidity cooler at $1^{\circ}C$. Results: The HF group showed a significantly higher cooking loss and expressible drip with significantly higher pH compared to other groups. In addition, protein and fat contents in the HD group were higher than those in other groups (p<0.05). The shear forces in the HW and HD groups were significantly lower than those in the CON group. The HD group had significantly higher omega-3 and polyunsaturated fatty acids compared with other groups. Glutamic acid levels in the HD group were significantly higher compared with those in other groups. Electronic tongue analysis revealed that sourness of the HD group was lower than that of other groups, whereas the HD group showed significantly higher umami, richness, and saltiness compared to other groups (p<0.05). Sensory test results revealed that the HW group had significantly higher tenderness, while the HD group had significantly higher chewiness, juiciness, and overall acceptability scores. Conclusion: These results suggest that both wet- and dry-aging treatments can effectively improve sensory characteristics, and dry-aging was much more useful to enhance umami tastes and meat quality of 2 grade Hanwoo sirloins.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.699-709
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• 2020

This study utilized the crust by-product from dry-aged beef as a flavor enhancer for brown sauce and analyzed its physicochemical and organoleptic properties. The physiochemical properties include proximate composition, color, pH, swelling yield, viscosity, and salinity. The organoleptic properties were studied through electronic nose and sensory evaluations. The moisture content of the samples decreased while fat and protein content increased as crust content increased (p<0.05). The lightness, yellowness, and redness increased with increasing crust content (p<0.05). The pH of the samples also increased as the crust content increased. The viscosity significantly increased while salinity decreased with increasing crust content (p<0.05). The aromatic profiles of the control and samples with 5% and 10% crust addition were distinguishable; however, samples with crust additives between 10% and 15% gave similar aromatic profiles. The taste of the control sample was significantly lower than that of the samples formulated with the crust (p<0.05), and the sensory viscosity of the samples with 10% crust was significantly higher than that of the control (p<0.05). Flavor and overall acceptability tended to increase with increasing crust content of up to 10% addition (p<0.05). These results show that the crust from dry-aged beef loin crust is a suitable natural flavor enhancer for brown sauce and improves its physiochemical and organoleptic properties.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.1101-1108
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• 2018

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dry-aging (DA) and the cooking process on the myofibril protein functionalities and in vitro digestibility of proteins in beef loin. Six sirloins from beef were dry-aged for 28 d, and the control group (n=6) was analyzed 2 d postmortem for this study. Dimensional changes (reduction of thickness and surface shrinkage) after cooking were significantly greater in the control group than the DA group, whereas the shear force of the DA group was significantly lower than that of the control. Effect of cooking on aggregation, hydrophobicity, and in vitro digestibility were significantly higher in the DA group than in the control. After cooking, the protein in DA sirloins was more oxidized than in the control samples. According to the sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis result, the low molecular weight bands (below 17 kDa) increased in the DA group, finding that the protein characteristics of dry-aged beef was affected by cooking.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.60 no.7
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• pp.19.1-19.10
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• 2018

Background: A mold strain thought to be suitable for dry-aging process was isolated. The information about the scientific aspects of molds related to dry-aging beef is scarce. We, therefore, conducted aging trials to determine the characteristics of the isolated mold strain associated with dry-aging process. Specifically, during the dry-aging of beef with the mold strain, the changes in the free amino acid content, hardness, productive loss, drip and cooking loss were analyzed. These characteristics were compared with those obtained while dry-aging in the absence of a mold. Results: The isolated mold strain was identified as Mucor flavus. The free amino acid content in the mold-aging beef decreased or remained constant during the aging process. However, that in the trimming sections of the beef dramatically increased in the presence of mold. In addition, hardness of mold-aging beef gradually decreased during the aging process and finally decreased significantly. Conclusion: Amino acids such as GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), proline, and aspartic acid were produced by our mold strain, M. flavus during its growth on beef meat, and the mold conferred savory odors to the dry-aged beef.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.501-505
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• 2020

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of aging methods (AM) i.e. dry-aging (DA) and wet-aging (WA) on the physicochemical properties and in vitro digestibility of proteins in beef short loin. Methods: Short loins (M. longissmus lumborum), were trimmed and boned-out on the fifth day postmortem, from a total of 18 Hanwoo, which were purchased from a commercial slaughterhouse. Short loins were separated randomly grouped into one of the three treatments: control, WA (1℃, 7 days), and DA (1℃, 0.5 m/s, 85% relative humidity [RH], 30 days). Results: Dry-aged beef (DAB) exhibited higher pH, water holding capacity (WHC), myofibrillar fragmentation index (MFI), and digestibility, however lower lightness, redness, and yellowness values, cooking loss, and shear force (SF), than those of wet-aged beef (WAB) (p<0.05). The myosin light chain band intensity of DAB was higher than that of control and WAB in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The in vitro digestibility of aged beef was highly (p<0.001) correlated to physicochemical properties except WHC. The correlation coefficient between AMs and WHC was higher than that between AM and SF (p<0.05) or MFI (p<0.001). A high correlation was observed between SF and MFI (p<0.001). Conclusion: Thus, we believe that DAB is more advantageous than WAB owing to its high digestibility and WHC and low SF.

• Journal of the FoodService Safety
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.8-18
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• 2022

Dry-aging is one of the traditional aging processes, especially for beef. This aging process is being popular, because it produces unique brown/roasted flavor and texture that consumers prefer. However, as it is exposed to outside without packaging food safety concerns have been raised. The objective of this study was to investigate the presence of total aerobic bacteria (TAB) and pathogenic bacteria in manufacturing environment and suggest the safety management plan for the production of dry-aged meat. Surface samples from 66 environmental and 6 beef carcass samples were collected. According to the monitoring results, the contamination levels of TAB were in the order of shelves (5.4±1.1 Log CFU/cm²), cotton gloves (2.9±0.2 Log CFU/cm²), and door knobs (2.8±0.4 Log CFU/cm²) in the dry-aging room. In the door knobs, the level of mold was higher than that of yeast. These results indicate that the mold spores may be cross-contaminated with environmental factors inside the aging room. The risk factors that may occur during the manufacturing process were presented and possibility of risk was determined. From the aspect of microbiology, aging and trimming steps were determined as the critical control points. The temperature of the aging room should be maintained below 10℃ and the humidity below 75-85%. Based on the monitoring and the risk assessment of the dry-aging process, we prepared the safety management plan for the production of dry-aged meat, and it should be useful in improving the food safety of dry-aged meat.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.286-296
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• 2020

This study investigates the utilization of an electric-field-induced super cooling system in long-term dry aging of beef loin. Analyzed quality properties of dry-aged beef loin applied with electric field refrigeration (EFR) versus commercial refrigeration (CR). Quality properties was including aging loss, pH, water holding capacity (WHC), cooking loss, color, warner-bractzler shear force (WBSF), total plate count (TPC), and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). Aging loss of wk 1 EFR was significantly lower than CR (p<0.05). pH of EFR was slow change tendency compared CR. WHC of both aging methods were higher with increase in aging duration. Cooking loss of wk 1, 2, 4, and 10 EFR were significantly lower than CR (p<0.05). Lightness and redness of EFR was slow change tendency compared CR. However, yellowness of EFR was increased until wk 2, 3, and significantly decreased at wk 10 (p<0.05), but yellowness of CR was decreased until wk 3 and significantly increased with an increasing aging weeks (p<0.05). Both aging methods of WBSF was decreased with increase in aging weeks; however, wk 10 of CR was significantly lower than EFR (p<0.05). TPC after wk 3 EFR groups were significantly lower than CR groups (p<0.05), and TBARS of EFR groups were significantly lower than CR (p<0.05). The present results show that application of the EFR system for dry aging beef loin can extends its shelf life and induce changes of several aging properties in similar to commercial aging.