NMR as a Noninvasive Tool in Meat Research

• NMR has been used for some time for in vivo measurements of biological tissues and has established itself as a valuable and complementary method to be used in parallel with traditional extraction methods. To date most attention has been paid to problems such as central biochemical pathways, energy metabolism in simple organisms and organs, and of course to problems encountered in medicine. There has been relative little interest in applying NMR to problems in food technology, even if these questions can have a tremendous impact on everyday life. Following a suggestion by Gadian,' we show here that multinuclear metabolic NMR is a useful method for studying post-mortem events in carcasses of slaughtered animals.The treatment and storage of carcasses during the first hours after slaughter is of extreme importance for the final quality and tenderness of the meat. Mistreatment can cause large economical losses and waste of valuable food. For example, in order to reduce the risk of bacterial infections one would like to cool down a carcass as soon as possible. Nevertheless, if a muscle is cooled down below 15OC before the postmortem metabolism is completed it may shorten dramatically thus decreasing the tenderness of the meat.' Therefore it is important to measure the rates of postmortem metabolism and to study the efficiency of methods that are aimed at speeding up this process.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Radiologi och bildbehandling (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging (hsv//eng)

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