Fresh beef tumbling at different post‐mortem times to improve tenderness and proteolytic features of M. longissimus lumborum

Summary The aim of this study was to determine the effects of tumbling at different post‐mortem times on the proteolytic features and quality attributes of beef loins ( M . longissimus lumborum ). Loins ( n = 12) were cut into 4 sections and assigned to tumbling at 1, 6 or 11 days post‐mortem or non‐tumbled control. Upon tumbling, additional ageing was applied to a common post‐mortem time of 16 days. In general, tumbling had no considerable impacts on water‐holding ability of samples. Tumbling resulted in an immediate decrease in shear force values (WBSF) of beef samples. Tumbling at 1 day post‐mortem with no ageing had similar WBSF compared to the non‐tumbled controls at 16 days ( P > 0.05). With ageing, tumbling increased amounts of protein degradation, myofibrillar fragmentation and calpain‐1 autolysis of samples. These results suggest that early post‐mortem tumbling coupled with ageing can synergistically impact the tenderness development of beef loins and shorten the necessary ageing period.