Effect of solar tunnel drying on the instrumental texture parameters of dried beef

Drying causes many changes to the various quality properties of meat and meat products, including texture. Most of the textural changes in meat during drying are due to denaturation of meat proteins which results in different structural changes. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of solar tunnel drying on the different textural parameters of dried beef. The beef samples were dried in different sections of the solar tunnel dryer (A-D, from the collector end to the end of the drying chamber of the tunnel dryer, respectively) and in the open sun as the control. The textural parameters of the dried product were then determined using volodkevich bite jaws and texture profile analysis methods of the texture analyser as well as the puncturing method of the rheometer. The hardness and firmness values of the dried beef samples were used to assess the level of variability of the three texture-measuring instruments and other textural parameters evaluated by texture profile analysis (TPA). The puncture test hardness values were significantly lower (P ≤ 0.05) than the values found for all the test methods used and were approximately ten times lower than the volodkevich firmness values. The TPA test could only be done on rehydrated samples resulting in a lower force of compression compared to the force required to deform samples for the volodkevich test. However, there was a high level of variability of the results as given by the large values of standard deviation of the TPA samples. The difference between the other textural parameters of the sun and solar dried beef samples was mostly significant for the sample closest to the collector end of the solar drier (sample A). Its adhesiveness, springiness (%) and resilience texture parameters were higher compared to sun dried beef samples.