Avaliação da cor, textura e gordura intramuscular dos cortes suínos de lombo (m. longissimus dorsi) e picanha (m. biceps femoris)

Abstract

Brazilian agriculture has great economic importance in the country, and swine farming has great influence in this scenario, since it is the most consumed meat in the world. In this way, the world consumer markets aim at the quality of such food, becoming more enlightened and demanding. Specifically, in the case of meat, the most observed qualitative attributes are palatability (tenderness, texture, taste and succulence) and appearance (color, firmness and marbling), which are observed through the physicochemical characteristics obtained in the muscles. The objective of this study was to evaluate the color, texture and intramuscular fat of the pork loin sections (Longissimus dorsi muscle) and picanha (Biceps femoris muscle). Porcine cuts were selected from 20 random animals (n = 20). The meat was cut into cubes, about 2.5 cm wide and 1 cm in diameter. In the physico-chemical analysis, the Chroma-Meter Cr-200b colorimeter, D65, 10º degree for standard observation, calibrated to a white standard was used for color determination. Due to the wide variation in the individual results for the color coordinates resulting from the presence of intramuscular fat, nine readings were performed per slice and the averages were used in the statistical analysis. In the analyzes performed, the results obtained for the color parameters ranged from 47.78 to 65.43 for L *; for a *, from 5.82 to 9.15 and for b *, from 5.39 to 13.81. The shear force presented values indicating tender samples (up to 4.5 kgf / cm²) and relatively tough (above 4.5 kgf / cm²). There was no difference between the percentage of intramuscular fat between the cuts and the shear force. It is concluded that in general the physico-chemical parameters studied were within the expected values, however, as we had a small sample, the possibility of verifying possible differences was narrowed.