Evaluation of prerigor beef burger 1. Effects of rigor state and processing procedures

Abstract

Several experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of rigor state and processing 
procedures on quality attributes of beef burger. Prerigor beef round muscles were excised from 
four beef carcasses within two hours from Exsanguination. Processing procedures included 
preparation of beef burgers from hot prerigor beef, frozen prerigor beef, 24 hours post rigor beef, 
48 hours post rigor beef and acidified prerigor beef samples. The measurements included pH, 
cooking loss, water index, colour and sensory evaluation. The results indicate that the burger 
prepared from the frozen prerigor beef had the highest cooking loss and was the lowest in 
tenderness, water index and juiciness compared with the rest of the treatments. The different 
treatments did not differ significantly in colour or flavour of the cooked samples. The frozen 
acidified prerigor beef burger was found equivalent to the 48 hours post rigor beef acidified 
ground prerigor beef had the highest scores in tenderness and.juiciness compared with the rest of 
the treatments. The results of the experiments suggest that the toughness and shrinkage 
associated with the burger prepared from prerigor beef muscles result from a cold induced rigor 
contraction.