Testing Meat with a pH Tester
The pH value of meat is used as a detection index for meat detection, and specific problems should be analyzed in detail.
(1) If an animal is overly fatigued, weak or sick before slaughter, its energy consumption is too large before death, the muscle glycogen stored in the muscle is less, and the amount of lactic acid accumulated in the muscle after the slaughter is bound to be lower. Fresh meat has a higher pH.
(2) The degree and method of cold treatment of meat are different, which also affect the change of pH value of meat. For example, fresh refrigerated meat has a pH of 5.8 to 6.4, frozen meat has a pH of 6.0 to 6.5, and quick-frozen meat has a pH 0.2 higher than slow-frozen meat.
(3) Different spoilage and decomposition processes also affect the pH value of meat. For example, sometimes, the ammonia produced during bacterial spoilage and decomposition combines with other products to form salts, losing the ability to neutralize acids, or sometimes spoiled meat is spoiled. During the process, a large amount of organic acids or some diseased animal meat are accumulated, and the result is that the pH value of the meat is similar to that of ordinary fresh meat. All of these situations indicate that pH value cannot be used as a criterion for evaluating the freshness of meat.
