Table 5.

Effects of β-glucan on meat quality.

Item	Control	β-glucan supplemental level, mg/kg
		50	100	200
Eye muscle area, cm2	42.85 ± 2.94	46.37 ± 3.60	42.12 ± 1.64	42.60 ± 1.69
Muscle pH (45 min)	6.27 ± 0.08b	6.38 ± 0.14ab	6.58 ± 0.09a	6.52 ± 0.09ab
Muscle pH (24 h)	5.91 ± 0.05	5.76 ± 0.04	5.85 ± 0.03	5.90 ± 0.07
Cooking loss, %	37.00 ± 0.90	37.70 ± 0.50	36.60 ± 0.90	37.90 ± 0.90
Drip losses, %	3.40 ± 0.30a	2.90 ± 0.20ab	2.50 ± 0.10b	2.80 ± 0.40ab
Shear force, N	3.04 ± 0.33	3.38 ± 0.26	3.56 ± 0.51	3.82 ± 0.56
L* (45 min)	38.13 ± 0.63	38.24 ± 0.22	38.38 ± 0.48	37.72 ± 0.36
a* (45 min)	3.71 ± 0.24b	3.87 ± 0.41ab	4.60 ± 0.25a	3.63 ± 0.19b
b* (45 min)	2.24 ± 0.11a	1.68 ± 0.13b	1.70 ± 0.15b	1.62 ± 0.22b
L* (24 h)	52.71 ± 0.89	54.16 ± 0.51	53.27 ± 0.88	52.25 ± 0.70
a* (24 h)	6.79 ± 0.64	7.33 ± 0.41	8.18 ± 0.50	7.31 ± 0.55
b* (24 h)	5.59 ± 0.47	4.86 ± 0.23	4.95 ± 0.47	5.02 ± 0.38

^{a, b} Within a row, means with different superscripts differ at P < 0.05.

L* = lightness; a* = redness; b* = yellowness.