– There is always a goal to avoid stress before slaughter. We have a moral obligation to reduce stress load for livestock to a minimum, says researcher Rune Rødbotten Nofima. He researches on tenderness and know what it takes to avoid chewy and dry meat. Along with animal welfare researcher Cecilie M. Mejdell of Veterinary Institute, he and other studied how different frame around slaughtering process affects stress and quality of the meat of the lamb.
Both participated in a pilot study comparing meat from lambs slaughtered on the family farm using a mobile slaughterhouse and from lamb transported to the slaughterhouse before they ended as lamb.
The lambs slaughtered at home showed less anxiety and had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood. It also had the lowest final pH in the muscle, which could mean a longer shelf life. All the meat was tender, but some of it home slaughtered was most tender. Rødbotten think the latter equally well due to the processing of the meat after slaughter as stress in advance.
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What hurrying animals?
– Animals slaughtered on the farm, avoiding some stressors that normal slaughter are exposed to, said Cecilie M. Mejdell. She rattles off a number of factors that affect stress levels in animals:
- Off and exit to and from the slaughterhouse, the transportation itself, including driving style of the driver and winding roads.
- Whether animals from different farms are mixed before they are slaughtered.
- To what extent they are handled by people they know and how they are handled by people .
- Also strong sounds and smells of the slaughterhouse may seem daunting – the same can an extra night in slaughterhouses before slaughter – which happens because the slaughterhouses will have a steady supply of slaughter.
– With mobile slaughter release animals from transport, they are handled by people they know, and there is a short wait. All this contributes to lower stress levels, she said.
Is stress meat always tough and dry?
Within all slaughterhouse operations are one looking to reduce stress – it applies whether one is talking about sheep, bulls or salmon.
– All endeavors least possible stress. Therefore, many slaughterhouses begun to shear his sheep after instead of before killing explains Mejdell.
Stress will lead to the secretion of stress hormones and that glycogen reserves (energy storage) in muscles drained. Meat from such animals will not get the same pH drop and is thus more susceptible to bacterial growth. Generally, a lot of stress over time often give tough meat.
But paradoxically, so meat from little stressed animals often are juicier than that which comes from unstressed. The relationships here are complicated.
– But paradoxically, so meat from little stressed animals often are juicier than that which comes from unstressed. The relationships here are complicated. Animal genetics, gender and age and cooling after the killing – everything works in, enlightens Rødbotten, which in general say that the circumstances surrounding slackening of Norwegian livestock hardly affects tenderness more than the processing of the meat afterwards.
Handling meat after slaughter crucial
The pilot study showed that the home slaughtered lambs was measured to be slightly more tender, but they were not taste tested. If the measured difference was noticeable, you know you can not appeal. And the causes of tenderness may be more.
– I do not think there is neither due to stress or slaughter method, but how meat was processed afterwards, says Rødbotten and refers to the temperature of cooling after slaughter. At one of the two examined the places where you used mobile slaughterhouse went cooling so slowly that he suggests that the FSA might not approved it. In large slaughterhouses are meat hygiene purposes refrigerated faster.
Rødbotten informs that both fast and slow cooling can give tough meat. Gradual cooling so that the temperature is between 10 to 15 ° C ten hours after sacrifice is the best for tenderness.
Whatever the reason points Mejdell figures basis of their experiments are too limited to bastant ascertaining that mobile slaughter always gives tender meat.
Other experiments with surprising discovery
In another ongoing research project (Sheep Taste) scientists have observed lamb who received unequal treatment before they were sent away with slaughtering car. After slaughter, samples were taken of flesh and blood, and it was undertaken taste test (sensory analysis).
– We have quite interesting findings, says Elin Rasten Brunsdon, project manager of Animalia.
Lam from three manufacturers in Gol were divided into three groups. One of them was subjected to what one describes as little stress and with much (long time from recovery from mountain to slaughter car arrived). The third group received after gathering in the mountains, go on home grazing in three days and recover before it was sent to the slaughterhouse.
All the lambs were slaughtered at Gol. Brunsdon informs that the last group, ie those lambs leisurely grazed home before slaughter car came, stood out at that averaged found higher stock of residual glycogen in their flesh. To the contrary, low content of residual glycogen, may be signs of hard physical strain. High residual glycogen can increase meat WHC, which can give juicier meat.
Found no difference in meat quality
The surprising was that professional panel people who are accustomed to the taste test food (a sensory panel) at Nofima, found no taste difference sirloin when they tasted the meat with both high and low content of residual glycogen.
– We expected really to find a difference both on crust, in flavor and juiciness in and that the extremes were selected, said Brunsdon
– In reality there was no difference in meat quality from the three groups in the experiment, although we see the difference in glycogen content, she said.
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