Table 2.
Trained sensory panel analysis and instrumental tenderness of beef longissimus thoracis from steers fed a high-grain finishing diet with no supplementation, benzoic acid, active dry yeast, or a combination of benzoic acid and active dry yeast
| Treatment1 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item | CON | ACD | YST | AY | SEM | P-value |
| Sensory analysis2 | ||||||
| Tenderness | 8.71 | 8.73 | 8.05 | 8.09 | 0.58 | 0.10 |
| Chewiness | 6.35b | 6.05b | 6.73ab | 7.51a | 0.61 | 0.01 |
| Juiciness | 6.66 | 7.19 | 7.11 | 6.80 | 0.60 | 0.44 |
| Beef flavor intensity | 7.98 | 7.70 | 7.92 | 8.35 | 0.60 | 0.23 |
| Off-flavor intensity | 2.00 | 1.70 | 1.68 | 1.84 | 0.67 | 0.52 |
| Instrumental tenderness3 | ||||||
| 7-d post-mortem aging, kg | 2.83 | 3.14 | 3.25 | 3.07 | 0.16 | 0.33 |
| 14-d post-mortem aging, kg | 2.47 | 2.79 | 2.83 | 2.54 | 0.19 | 0.21 |
a-b Least square means within a row with different superscripts differ (P < 0.05).
1 Treatments: CON (n = 15): control (not supplemented); ACD (n = 14): 0.5% of benzoic acid dietary inclusion on a DM basis (DSM Nutritional Products); YST (n = 15): 3g/hd/d of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Vistacell, AB Vista, Marlborough, UK); AY (n = 13): 0.5% of benzoic acid dietary inclusion on a DM basis (DSM Nutritional Products) and 3 g/hd/d of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Vistacell, AB Vista, Marlborough, UK).
2 Sensory traits were measured on a 15-cm line scale; tenderness: 0 = extremely tough to 15 = extremely tender; chewiness: 0 = not chewy to 15 = extremely chewy; juiciness: 0 = very little juiciness to 15 = very high juiciness; beef flavor intensity: 0 = very weak beef flavor detected to 15 = very intense beef flavor; off-flavor intensity: 0 = no off-flavors detected to 15 = very intense off-flavor.
3 Instrumental tenderness was measured using Warner–Bratzler shear force.