Effects of Aging Period Prior to Freezing on Meat Quality of Hanwoo Muscle (Longissimus dorsi)

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of the aging period prior to freezing on the meat quality of Hanwoo longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle. Three different combinations of aging and freezing periods (0/90, 20/70, and 40/50) were examined LD muscle at 24 h postmortem under an identical storage time of 90 d. The pH and lightness slightly increased with increasing aging period. However, there were no significant (p>0.05) differences in redness and yellowness. The solitary freezing treatment (0/90) had the significantly (p0.05) difference in shear force and sensorial properties between 20 and 40 d aging prior to freezing. Therefore, 20 d aging prior to freezing may be a sufficiently effective strategy to improve the tenderness and sensorial properties of Hanwoo LD muscle