Abstract
We investigated the effect of fatty acid composition on the sensory characteristics of grilled beef steak. Beef steak samples with varying fatty acid composition were cooked by grilling, and then analysed for sensory qualities, breaking measurements, and cooking loss. Based on the sensory evaluation, samples with high content of monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) were found to have reduced “tenderness” and inferior “overall texture”. On the other hand, these samples had good “flavor intensity”. Additionally, these samples had high value of breaking characteristics and there was increased loss of fat and juice through cooking. It has been suggested that the fat in the samples with high MUFA melted at a lower temperature, and therefore, resulted in an increased outflow of fat and meat juice when the steak was grilled, leading to an inferior texture. Increases in the MUFA ratio of the beef steak adversely affected the texture. Consequently, we suggest that to be palatable, beef should have a suitable proportion of each fatty acid. We found that beef samples with good sensory qualities generally had a MUFA proportion of 56-59%.
