Understanding the influence of PEF treatment on minerals and lipid oxidation of wet- and dry-aged venison M. longissimus dorsi muscle

Pulse electric fields (PEF) treatment can be used to improve meat quality attributes, such as tenderness and mass transfer kinetics of dry ageing of meat. This study investigated the effect of PEF (high-PEF 10 kV, 50 Hz, 20 μs; low-PEF 2.5 kV, 50 Hz, 20 μs) and ageing method (wet- and dry-ageing) on venison mineral profiles, and lipid and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) oxidative stability. Twelve loins from six red deer were assigned to six groups: no-PEF dry-aged control, no-PEF control, wet-aged Low-PEF, dry-aged Low-PEF, dry-aged High-PEF, wet-aged High-PEF. Secondary oxidation products contents were not affected by PEF treatment (p > 0.05), but were affected by dry ageing (p < 0.05). CLA was stable across PEF treatments and different ageing regimes (p > 0.05). PEF treatments did not have any effect on minerals (p > 0.05). This study validates the safety of using PEF in venison processing with limited detrimental oxidative modifications.
Industrial relevance - PEF treatment and the dry-ageing regimes applied to venison in the present study did not produce excessive oxidative by-products that could compromise product quality. The application of both PEF treatments (HPEF 10 kV, 50 Hz, 5 μs; LPEF 2.5 kV, 50 Hz, 5 μs) could potentially improve the drying of venison with a low risk of increasing oxidation.