engleski

Is horse meat tender enough to grill?

Due to lack of recent data horse meat is believed to be less tender type of meat, however, meat tenderness represents one of the most important factors of eating quality, which influences consumer’s purchase decision. The belief stems from the past, when horses used for human consumption were older, weaken or injured working animals, and their meat was tougher than the meat of bred slaughter horses today. To assess horse meat tenderness and establish its palatability regarding the consumer expectations, a study was made, comparing the results to the beef tenderness standards as no standards yet exist for the horse meat. Meat samples from 60 slaughter horses of Slovenian and Croatian origin were obtained from a specialised commercial butchery ‘Hot horse’. M. longissimus thoracis (LT) and M. semitendinosus (ST) samples were taken from each carcass aged for 14 days, and Warner- Bratzler shear force measurement (WB) was performed on each sample. The horses belonged to different breed groups (warm‑blooded, draft and draft crossbred) and their age varied from 7 to 35 months. Model in statistical analysis included effects of age, divided in 4 classes (7-10 months, 11-18 months, 19-24 months and >24 months), type of muscle, sex and breed group. The analysis of variance showed that age, sex and breed group did not significantly affect muscle tenderness (P>0.05), while type of muscle did (P<0.0001). Total mean WB was 3.7 kg and least square means for LT and ST were 2.7 kg and 4.6 kg, respectively. Muscles were categorised according to the measured WB in 3 standard tenderness groups – tender ≤3.9 kg ; intermediate 3.9 kg <x≤4.6 kg ; and tough >4.6 kg. In the literature beef LT was categorised as ‘intermediate’ and ST as ‘tough’. Horse LT and ST in this study were categorised as ‘tender’ and marginally ‘intermediate’, respectively. It can be concluded that investigated parts of horse meat are tender enough to satisfy consumer’s palate. To confirm the results more similar research should be made, leading to formation of horse meat quality standards.

Horse meat ; Tenderness

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