Elsevier

Food Chemistry

Volume 136, Issues 3–4, 1–15 February 2013, Pages 1597-1602
Food Chemistry

Comparison of consumer perception and acceptability for steaks cooked to different endpoints: Validation of photographic approach

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2012.04.069Get rights and content

Abstract

Photographs have been used to enhance consumer reporting of preference of meat doneness, however, the use of photographs has not been validated for this purpose. This study used standard cooking methods to produce steaks of five different degrees of doneness (rare medium, medium well, well done and very well done) to study the consumer’s perception of doneness, from both the external and internal surface of the cooked steak and also from corresponding photographs of each sample. Consumers evaluated each surface of the cooked steaks in relation to doneness for acceptability, ‘just about right’ and perception of doneness. Data were analysed using a split plot ANOVA and least significant test. Perception scores (for both external and internal surfaces) between different presentation methods (steak samples and corresponding photos), were not significantly different (p > 0.05). The result indicates that photographs can be used as a valid approach for assessing preference for meat doneness.

Highlights

► Photographs of cooked meat may help consumers report their preference for doneness. ► Photographs have not been validated for this purpose. ► Consumers perceived doneness of meat similarly using photographs and meat samples. ► Viewing photographs to report doneness is a valid surrogate for cooked meat. ► Distinguishing varying doneness is easier with internal than external surface.

Introduction

Cooking meat results in a number of chemical reactions including protein denaturation (Warriss, 2010) and Maillard browning reactions (Friedman, 1996) which change the appearance of both the external and internal surface (King & Whyte, 2006). The temperature to which meat is cooked is critical for the destruction of pathogenic bacteria and the United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Inspection Service has specified temperatures that must be reached during the cooking of beef, and different time–temperature combinations that can be used to achieve this (USDA, 2011).

Degree of doneness is well correlated with heterocyclic amine formation in cooked meat (Ferguson, 2010) and therefore, corresponding photographs (of varying degrees of meat doneness) may be a useful accompanying tool in dietary surveys to assess exposures to chemical compounds such as heterocyclic amines (HCAs) (Scheppach & Scheurlen, 2003). The formation of these HCAs depends on two main factors: cooking method and degree of doneness. Since consumers have different perceptions of degree of doneness, food photographs have been included previously in some dietary questionnaires to improve the accuracy of reporting of doneness preference (Sinha, 2002). However, in a recent review, Zheng & Lee (2009) commented that use of photographs to assess doneness had not been validated.

For that reason, validation of photographs is an important first step to confirm their usefulness in eliminating between-consumer differences in doneness perception. Because heterocyclic amines are formed on the meat surface during cooking, validation of photographs of doneness using both internal and external meat surface views is necessary. Validation in this context means to compare how consumers perceive doneness between viewing cooked beef steaks and their corresponding photos. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare perception of doneness between viewing cooked meat of varying doneness and their corresponding photographs to assess the reliability and accuracy of using food photographs as an assessment tool. The second aim was to determine whether consumers better assess doneness using either the internal or external surface. In these experiments, photographs were taken under controlled and standardised conditions and developed using standardised colour management system protocols to ensure that the appearance of the photograph colour matched that of the actual meat sample presented.

Section snippets

Sample preparation

Vacuum-packed half sirloin (Longissimus lumborum ∼4 kg) was purchased at a local wholesaler on the day of experiment. The external connective tissue (epimysium) and any external fat of the sirloin were trimmed and it was further cut into 25 steaks (25 mm thick and approximately 110 g each). Raw steak samples were selected from each batch (5 steaks) for pH measurement before the start of cooking and it was measured in duplicate using a TPS WP-80 pH-mV-temperature metre (Aquaspex, Blackwood,

pH measurement, internal temperature, cooking loss and WBSF

As expected, pH of raw meat samples was not significantly different (p < 0.05) between samples; ranging from 5.71 to 5.72. The internal end-point temperatures, cooking loss and WBSF increased as the cooking time increased from 3 to 5.5 min (Fig. 2). The end-point temperature for steaks cooked to M was slightly higher than expected and closer to the expected temperature for MW (75 °C). As a result, no significant differences were observed in the cooking loss and WBSF between M and MW. Similar trends

The effect of increase in end-point temperature on WBSF and cooking loss

The increase in WBSF and cooking loss due to an increase in internal end-point temperature in this study were comparable to results reported by other researchers (Obuz et al., 2004, Yancey et al., 2011). The increase in shear force values is due to a combination of collagen shrinkage and denaturation of proteins in muscle fibres as internal temperature increases from 40 to 80 °C (Harris & Shorthose, 1988). Obuz et al. (2004) reported muscles with high collagen content (e.g. biceps femoris and

Conclusion

The results supported the hypothesis that photographs can provide means for assessing consumer perception of doneness and could be used as a tool to assess differences in doneness preference between consumers, which if supplemented with information about cooking method could be further used to measure HCA exposure. The use of photographs of internal surface (rather than external) may result in better reporting of doneness preference. Further work using imaging analysis of the steak photographs

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Department of Education and Learning (NI), and Queen’s University for funding this study and staff of Food Chemistry Branch, Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute (AFBI) for providing sensory facilities and Cliff Mason (AFBI) for supporting and producing the photographs.

References (18)

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