Fatty acid profiles and sensory properties of Longissimus dorsi, Triceps brachii, and Semimembranosus muscles from Korean Hanwoo and Australian Angus beef

The study compared the fatty acid profiles of 3 muscles (Longissimus dorsi, LD, Triceps brachii, TB and Semimembranosus, SM) obtained from Korean Hanwoo (18 steers, 24 months old) and Australian Angus beef (18 steers, 24 months old) and assessed their role in sensory perception. The samples of each carcass were prepared in the same manner, and cooked both as traditional grilled steaks and Korean BBQ style. A total of 720 Korean sensory panelists evaluated the beef samples for tenderness, juiciness, flavor, and overall liking. Oleic acid (18:1) was significantly (p<0.05) higher in TB than that in LD and SM. The essential linoleic acid (C18:2) was significantly (p<0.05) higher in TB and SM than that in LD. For LD muscle, the proportion of saturated fatty acids was significantly (p<0.05) highest, while that of polyunsaturated fatty acids was lowest among the three muscles. Australian Angus beef had significantly (p<0.05) higher n-3 PUFA than that of the Korean Hanwoo for the three muscles, while the latter contained significantly (p<0.05) higher n-6 PUFA than that of the former. The clustering analysis showed that there a was significant difference in fatty acids such as C16:0, C16:1n7, C18:0, C18:2n6, C18:3n3, C20:3n6, C20:4n6, C22:4n6, and C22:5n3 for sensory perception (tenderness, juiciness, flavor and overall likeness) of the beef from two origins (p<0.05) among three clusters. Especially, C14:0 had a significant effect on sensory perception only for Korean Hanwoo beef; while C20:5n3 had a significant (p<0.05) effect only for Australian Angus beef based on clustering with the sensory variables.