QUALITY ASSESSMENTS OF DEHYDRATED BEEF AND FROZEN BEEF DURING STORAGE

Abstract

A smoking kiln dehydrated beef and frozen beef were studied for the effect of storage on their physicochemical qualities. Parameters such as pH, titratable acidity, water absorption capacity, as well as proximate compositions were analysed using standard methods for a period of 16 weeks. Data collected were analysed using analysis of variance and treatment means were compared using Turkey test at 5% probability level. Significant (p<0.05) differences were observed in the physical and nutritional parameters between the frozen and dehydrated beef in storage durations. The pH ranged between 4.51- 4.55 and 6.39-6.65 for dried and frozen beef respectively during the storage period. During the storage period, there were slight decline in the proximate parameters for both dried and frozen beef. However, the rate of decline was more significant in moisture and fat contents of frozen beef than dehydrated beef. While dried beef had significantly (p<0.05) higher values in terms of crude protein, crude fibre and ash contents, the highest proximate parameter recorded being protein ranged between (68.76±2.20 to 68.61±1.99) % for dried beef and between (10.99±1.06 to 10.07±0.11) % for frozen beef throughout the period of storage. This study revealed that dehydration method provided more retention of physicochemical properties for beef storage than freezing method