According to the results presented in Table 3, the method of chilling
had a significant impact on the development of pH and electrical conductivity (EC) in the LL muscle 2 and 6 h p.m. Half-carcasses subject to
blast chilling had a significantly (p ≤ 0.01) higher pH 2 h and 6 h p.m.,
and lower electrical conductivity (EC 2 h p.m.) in the LL muscle compared to the conventionally chilled carcasses. 24 h p.m. there were no
significant differences in pH and EC in the LL muscle between the
methods of chilling the carcasses. At 48 h p.m., the blast-chilled LL muscle had significantly (p ≤ 0.01) lower lightness (L*), yellowness (b*) and
chroma (C*) and significantly (p ≤ 0.05) lower drip loss compared to
the conventionally chilled carcasses (Table 4).
Between the carcasses with S, E and U conformation classes, there
were no significant differences in pH of the LL muscle from 35 min to
72 h. We found, however, that the extent of the decrease in pH (from
35 min to 72 h) was significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) in E carcasses and
lower in U carcasses. Based on mean levels, one could see a tendency
that the higher the carcass conformation, the higher the electrical
conductivity (EC2 and EC24) in the LL muscle. There was no significant
relation between conformation class and color characteristics or drip
loss in the LL muscle.