Features of post-slaughter biochemical processes in meat raw materials at llc “Ternopil meat plant”
Authors: Fursik O. , Strasynskiy I. , Hrytsai M. , Iepishkin S. , Perhat O. 
Published: July 2022

Today, the issue of targeted use of raw materials, taking into account the nature of autolytic changes, becomes particular importance, since the proportion of animals entering for processing has significantly increased, in which, after slaughter, significant deviations from the normal development of autolytic processes are found in the tissues. All known meat-specific PSE and DFD biochemical processes that take place in muscle tissue, as well as the composition of meat prove the need for serious study for technological processing. One of the main indicators that characterize the direction of development of postmortem changes in the obtained meat raw materials, and therefore allow us to state the deviations from the norm is the value of the amount of glycogen and lactic acid in the meat of slaughter animals. It is equally important to determine the physicochemical properties of meat raw materials and the degree of boiling of collagen, which will determine the rational directions for its further processing. For research meat raw materials was used from slaughter of pigs at Ternopil Meat Processing Plant LLC obtained from 4 farms: Farm No. 1 in Nastasiv village (breeder), Farm No. 8 in Dvorichia village (breeder), Farm No. 2 in Nastasiv village (growing), Farm No. 7 Stare Misto village / Pidhaytsi village (breeder). It was found that the highest indicator of water and fat content, namely 73.1 % and 3.7 % is characterized by meat obtained from slaughter of pigs from the farm No. 7 (village Stare Misto / village Pidhaytsi (breeder)). As for the protein content, the highest values are typical for meat obtained by slaughtering pigs from the farm No. 2 (village Nastasiv (growing) – 22.9 %. The degree of boiling of collagen varies depending on the direction of maturation processes in the raw material. It was found that pigs delivered from the farm No. 7 have a greater tendency to deviate from the classical course of autolysis in the direction of obtaining raw materials with PES signs because they are characterized by the highest degree of boiling of collagen at the level of 62.6 %. Determination of the content of glycogen and lactic acid in meat during autolytic processes allows to note the rapid breakdown of glycogen and intensive accumulation of lactic acid in 1 hour after slaughter (at the level of 589 mg% and 307 mg%, respectively) and increase this process after 24 hours for meat raw materials obtained from the farm No. 7 (at the level of 223 mg% and 674 mg%, respectively). Obtained results confirm that the analysis of the content of glycogen and lactic acid at the stages of maturation can identify deviations in the quality of meat raw materials and take measures to correct them. The identified specific biochemical processes for meat occurring in muscle tissue, as well as significant differences in its properties necessitate their detection in production conditions with subsequent sorting of raw materials into groups to determine the most rational option for technological processing of such meat.