Effects of two commercial meat tenderizers on different cuts of goat\'s meat in Namibia

Abstract

Most meat consumed in Namibia is derived from poultry, cattle, sheep and pigs,
despite the fact that majority of commercial and communal farmers in Namibia keep
goats. Goat's meat is not available in the formal market or in the supermarkets in
Namibia and is rarely used locally for domestic or commercial purposes due to ethical
reasons, alleged poor taste, toughness and unpalatability. It is regarded by some to be
for the poor sector of the community and for export only. Others consider goats as
pets and a few consider goat's meat a delicacy for home use only. Research on meat
tenderization has been carried out on beef, mutton and pork worldwide but very little
has been done on goat meat. Meat tenderness has influence on softness, taste,
palatability as well as preparation methods, carcass grade and meat price. Generally
meat tenderness is indicated by age and species of the animal that indicate minimum
cross linking of collagen and actomyosin effect in the muscles. In an attempt to
increase goat's meat consumption in Namibia, two commercial meat tenderizers
(acidic and enzymatic) were used and tested for their ability to tenderize different cuts
of goat's meat. Three different cuts of the toughest parts of goat's meat, namely back,
hind limbs and ribs were used for tenderization and to determine the effectiveness of
the tenderizers. The first sample of three cuts was used for tenderizer one (acidic), the
second for tenderizer two (enzymatic) and the third sample was un-tenderized and
was used as a control. Trained panelists were asked to chew and evaluate tenderness
of the coded braised goat meat samples on a hedonic scale and the mean results were
subjected to statistical analysis. The results showed that the un-tenderized meat cuts
(control) remained tough and hard compared to the tenderized ones, while there was
no significant difference (p<0.05) between the two tenderized meat samples and the
effectiveness of tenderizers to tenderize the three different cuts of goat meat. Panelists
also evaluated the meat cuts equally. The cuts were tenderized equally and were
regarded as soft.

Keywords: Acidic, enzymatic, goat's meat, tenderizer.

AJFAND Vol. 8 (4) 2008: pp. 418-426