In our Master's thesis, we analysed the effect of aging on meat tenderness in Simmental bulls and linked this attribute to other growth and carcass quality traits. The study included meat samples of 346 Simmental bulls from a progeny testing station. Longissimus dorsi muscle frozen three days after slaughter represented the fresh meat, and the aged meat was frozen after 21 days aging in a vacuum at 2 °C. Three weeks of aging reduced the shear force of the meat by almost a third, and bulls that had more tender meat before aging also had more tender meat after aging, and the absolute and relative extent of meat aging was lower. Daily gain, age at slaughter and carcass weight had no statistically significant (p䁥0.05) effect on the shear force of fresh and aged meat and on the absolute and relative extent of aging. When the fat content in the carcass increased up to approximately 15 %, the shear force of both fresh and aged meat first increased and then decreased. However, both the absolute and relative extent of aging decreased as the fat content of the carcass increased. When the pH value 24 hours after slaughter increased, the shear force of fresh and aged meat decreased and the extent of aging, both absolute and relative, decreased. The effect of bull sire had a statistically significant effect on shear force and drip loss, cooking loss and total loss, suggesting that these meat quality traits are genetically determined.
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