Effects of distance and vibration isolation during transportation on subprimal and case-ready steak quality of beef sirloins.

The objectives of this study were to determine the impacts of transportation distance and vibration isolation on beef sirloin subprimal and case-ready steak quality. Cases (n = 45) of beef sirloin top butts were obtained from a commercial processing facility and allocated to one of three treatments: (i) regular pallet transported 240 km (RP240), (ii) regular pallet transported 640 km (RP640), or (iii) vibration isolation pallet transported 640 km (VI640). After initial transportation, one sirloin from each case was subset for further analysis. Sirloins were fabricated into three-2.54 cm steaks for evaluation of color, purge loss, cook loss, and Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF). The steaks were further bisected into medial and lateral halves. Steaks from the medial side were evaluated fresh and steaks from the lateral side were frozen prior to evaluation. Steaks were allocated into three evaluation time points: (i) subprimal fabrication, (ii) case-ready steaks evaluated prior to retail display (d 0), or (iii) case-ready steaks evaluated after 6 d of retail display (d 5). Data were analyzed as a completely randomized design with fixed effects of treatment and day of simulated display. Least-squares means were calculated, and two orthogonal contrasts were used to test the hypotheses (i) "Distance" RP240 vs RP640 and (ii) "Pallet" RP640 vs VI640. Significance was determined at α ≤ .05. Increased distance resulted in decreased (P < 0.05) L*, a*, and b* of sirloin subprimals. Additionally, VI640 steaks had increased (P = 0.005) WBSF values for fresh steaks at the time of subprimal fabrication. Fresh case-ready RP240 steaks had increased (P ≤ 0.005) purge loss, cook loss, total moisture loss, and L* values compared to RP640 steaks. Fresh case-ready VP640 steaks had increased (P ≤ 0.011) purge loss and L* values compared to RP640 steaks. Fresh steaks had decreased (P ≤ 0.008) purge loss and WBSF on d 5 of simulated retail display compared to d 0. Frozen steaks had decreased (P = 0.023) purge loss on d 5 of simulated retail display compared to d 0. Instrumental L* did not change (P = 0.604), but a* and b* values were reduced (P < 0.001) over the course of simulated retail display. Minimal differences (P > 0.05) were observed on frozen steaks. These data indicated that increased subprimal transportation distance and vibration exposure may be beneficial to water holding capacity, color, and tenderness of fresh beef sirloin steaks.