In-the bag dry ageing as a strategy to produce value added Beef with enhanced flavor profiles

This study evaluated the eating quality of in-the bag dry aged longissimus lumborum (LL) from cows and steers. Ten LL from cows and steers were cut in half and randomly wet and dry aged, using conventional
and dry-age specifically manufactured plastic bags, respectively. The LL sections were vacuum-packed and
aged at 2°C for 28 d. The LL segments were then removed from packaging, and weighed to determine purge
losses. Six 2.5 cm steaks were removed from each segment for subsequent cooking loss, shear force, descriptive sensory panel, flavour profile and flavour chemistry analyses. Purge loss, initial juiciness, livery aroma and sweet taste were affected by an animal×ageing interaction (P<0.05). Dry ageing decreased livery aroma (P<0.0001) in steers, and increased salty taste (P<0.05) and perception of amount of connective tissue (P<0.05) as well as decreased cooking loss (P<0.0001) in both steers and cows. Dry ageing increased the concentration of several volatile compounds (P<0.05) associated with positive aromatic descriptors in cows, although they were not reflected in significant differences in flavours detected by the panelists. Dry ageing might be a successful strategy to decrease the undesirable livery aroma in susceptible muscles from steers. Further studies are required with longer dry ageing periods for cows that might enhance those flavour compounds sufficiently to be detected by the panelists.