| 摘要 |
A meat quality and yield improvement process comprises hanging the hind leg(s) of a carcass and applying an additional pulling force of from 50 to 500kgf to the muscles of the carcass, preferably to the leg and back muscles. The additional force stretches the muscle filaments and is maintained until rigor is complete. The hind leg(s) of the carcass may be hung at an angle (α, Fig 1) of 90 to 170 degrees to the vertical. Tenderised meat is produced in which the muscle fibres are stretched and have a sarcomere length of greater than 2.6 microns. The force may be applied by connecting portions of the carcass with a ram. Hooks 30 and 31 may be connected to the shank 12 and first rib 14 respectively and the ram includes a cylinder 20 and a rod 21 which is activated by pressurised air from an actuator (40, Fig 9) to retract and provide a pulling force of around 150kgf for usually approximately 48hrs. |
