Introducing an Angle Adjustable Cutting Box for Analyzing Slice Shear Force in Meat

Research indicates the fibre angle of the longissimus muscle can vary, depending upon location within a steak and throughout the muscle. Instead of using the original fixed 45 ° or 90 ° cutting angle for testing shear force, a variable angle cutting box can be adjusted so the angles of the knives correspond to the fibre angle of each sample. Within 2 min after cooking to an internal temperature of 71 °C on an open-hearth grill set at 210 °C, a 1 cm by 5 cm core is cut from the steak, parallel to muscle fibre direction, using 2 knife blades set 1 cm apart. This warm core is then subjected to the Slice Shear Force protocol (SSF) to evaluate meat texture. The use of the variable angle cutting box and the SSF protocol provides an accurate representation of the maximal shear force, as the slice and muscle fibres are consistently parallel. Therefore, the variable angle cutting box, in conjunction with the SSF protocol, can be used as a high-throughput technique to accurately evaluate meat tenderness in different locations of the longissimus muscle and, potentially, in other muscles.