Enhancement Increases Consumer Acceptability of Beef Strip Enhancement Increases Consumer Acceptability of Beef Strip Loin Steaks Loin Steaks

, despite potential


Introduction
Juiciness, tenderness, and flavor have been well documented as the primary drivers for beef eating satisfaction and are large contributors to consumer purchasing decisions.Increased marbling, and therefore increased quality grade, in beef products has been the industry tool for predicting eating experience.In order to increase consumer eating satisfaction, the pork industry has implemented widespread use of enhancement technology in fresh pork products to allow products to remain juicy and tender, despite potential overcooking.Using this enhancement technology in the beef industry could allow lower quality beef (USDA Select and lower) to provide better eating experiences for consumers.A recent study by Woolley (2014) found enhancement decreased the percentage of USDA Select steaks rated unacceptable from more than 40% to less than 5%; however, no research exists that determines if enhancement increases palatability independent of marbling score.Therefore, objectives of this study were to evaluate consumer acceptability of enhanced beef strip loin steaks and to determine if enhancement provides an additive effect to marbling for palatability characteristics.

Experimental Procedures
Prime, Low Choice, and Low Select strip loins (n=72; 24 per treatment group; Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications #180) were procured from a beef processor in the Midwest and transported to the Kansas State University Meat Laboratory.Within each quality grade, half were enhanced to 108% of raw weight with a solution formulated to result in 0.35% salt and 0.4% phosphate in the final injected product.Strip loins were then fabricated into approximately 1-inch steaks, vacuum packaged, and frozen.Thawed steaks were cooked to three different degrees of doneness on a clamshell grill (Cuisinart, East Windsor, NJ): rare (140°F), medium (160°F), and very well done (180°F).A total of 252 consumers were used in panels.Each panel consisted of seven consumers and each panelist was served six samples.Panelists recorded their preferences for tenderness, juiciness, flavor liking, and overall like on a 100 point line scale, with anchors at each end and midpoint.The sensory scale was 0 = extremely dry/ tough/none/unbeef-like/bland, and 100 = extremely juicy/tender/abundant/beef-like/ intense.Consumers also rated each steak as either acceptable or unacceptable for each palatability trait.

Results and Discussion
As expected, consumers rated non-enhanced Prime and Low Choice steaks higher (P<0.05) for tenderness and juiciness than non-enhanced Low Select steaks (Table 1).Moreover, Low Choice steaks were found to be similar (P>0.05) to Low Select steaks for flavor liking and overall liking.Non-enhanced Low Select steaks were rated lowest (P<0.05) for tenderness and juiciness of all treatments.Conversely, consumers rated the three enhanced treatments-Prime, Low Choice, and Low Select-higher (P<0.05)than all of the non-enhanced products for all palatability traits.Additionally, the enhanced products were similar (P>0.05) for all palatability traits, despite quality grade differences.Prime steaks improved (P<0.05) in overall liking ratings by 20.9% with enhancement, Low Choice steaks' ratings increased (P<0.05) by 30.7%, and Low Select steaks received (P<0.05) the greatest improvement with 37.6% increase in overall liking with enhancement.These results indicate there is no additive effect between enhancement and quality grade on palatability.In terms of degrees of doneness, tenderness, juiciness, and overall liking scores decreased (P<0.05) as degree of doneness increased (rare>medium>very well-done).
For the percentage of steaks rated acceptable (Table 2), consumers preferred nonenhanced Prime steaks over Low Select non-enhanced steaks.However, a similar (P>0.05)percentage of non-enhanced Prime samples were rated acceptable for tenderness, juiciness, flavor liking, and overall liking as non-enhanced Low Choice.The non-enhanced Low Select steaks were found to be the least desirable (P<0.05)across all traits, with 41.5% of steaks rated as unacceptable overall; however, within enhanced steaks a similar percentage (P>0.05) of steaks were rated acceptable for all quality grades.Additionally, a higher percentage (P<0.05) of enhanced steaks from each grade was rated acceptable than all non-enhanced treatments for flavor and overall acceptability, and were only similar (P>0.05) to non-enhanced Prime for tenderness and juiciness.Low Select steaks increased from less than 60% acceptable overall to more than 85% of samples rated acceptable through enhancement.This increase in overall eating satisfaction represents a large opportunity for value capture and improvement in Select beef through the use of enhancement technology.As degree of doneness increased, tenderness, juiciness, flavor, and overall liking scores decreased (P<0.05;rare>medium>very well-done).

Implications
These results indicate there is no additive effect between enhancement and quality grade with respect to palatability.All of the enhanced steaks, regardless of quality grade, were rated better for overall liking in comparison to non-enhanced steaks.Additionally, enhanced steaks, despite differing quality grades, were found to be similar for ratings of tenderness, juiciness, flavor, and overall liking.The enhanced Low Select steaks showed the most improvement in overall liking ratings, with an increase of 37.6%.This shows that it is more effective to enhance lower quality grade products, rather than higher quality products.Least squares means in the same section without a common superscript differ (P<0.05).

Table 1 .
Least squares means for consumer panel ratings 1 of grilled strip loin steaks of three quality treatments and three degrees of doneness (n=252) a,b,c,d Least squares means in the same main effect without a common superscript differ (P<0.05).

Table 2 .
Percentage of grilled strip loin steaks of three quality treatments and three degrees of doneness rated as acceptable 1 by consumers (n=252) 1Sensory Scores: 0 = Extremely tough/dry/not acceptable flavor, 100 = Extremely juicy/tender/acceptable flavor.2Enhanced 108% of raw weight with a water, salt, and alkaline phosphate solution.