Post-mortem techniques to improve the eating quality of common eland meat

BUREŠ, Daniel, NEEDHAM, T., BARTOŇ, Luděk, LEBEDOVÁ, Nicole and KOTRBA, Radim. Post-mortem techniques to improve the eating quality of common eland meat. Maso, 2021, vol. 32(6), p. 18-24. ISSN 1210-4086.
Year2021
CathegoryPublication in specialized journals
Internal link21131.pdf
Abstract

The eland antelope is one of the largest species of antelope, and is currently farmed in a number of countries in southern Africa, and is well-represented in captive populations internationally. One such herd is located at the agricultural research unit of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. The presented work focuses on the procedures for carcass and meat processing of eland, and how to improve the final eating quality of eland meat. Two experiments were performed, using ten two-year-old male eland. The first experiment focused on the use of two carcass suspension methods after slaughter (hanging by the Achilles tendon vs. hanging by the pelvic bone), and evaluated their effects on meat physical and organoleptic properties. The aim of the second experiment was to identify the most suitable method of cooking eland meat, so as to achieve the most favourable organoleptic properties. The experiments showed that suspension and cooking methods are both important parameters that can be used to improve the textural characteristics of eland meat.