Evaluation of methods affecting mutton tenderness

Abstract
Summary: Much of the myofibrillar toughness which occurs in some muscles in mutton carcasses, when they are hung from the Achilles tendon and conditioned at 0–1°C, can be avoided by conditioning at 7–8°C. Fewer muscles are significantly affected by changes in conditioning temperature when carcasses are hung from the pelvis. A modified version of the ‘pelvic hanging method’ increased sarcomere lengths in the forequarter muscles and provided a more compact carcass without losing the benefits of pelvic hanging. A drug treatment, which successfully prevented struggling at slaughter, increased toughness in those muscles not restrained from cold‐shortening by the skeletal framework.Although inoculated Pseudomonas spp. and E. coli organisms normally decreased on exposed areas of the carcasses at both conditioning temperatures, there was an increase in pseudomonas organisms on exposed areas of the brisket conditioned at 7–8°C.