Is Prolonged Ageing a Necessity for Improving the Quality of Sous-Vide Cooked Beef?

This study aimed to determine the effect of wet ageing time (4, 14 and 21 days) on the quality of sous-vide cooked beef products. The research material consisted of <i>longissimus lumborum</i> muscles obtained from the carcasses of Polish Holstein-Friesian bulls (n = 9, average age at slaughter 22 months). The meat was wet-aged at 4 ± 1 °C for 4, 14 and 21 days post-mortem. The analyses were conducted on uncooked samples (colour and pH) and after the sous-vide cooking (60 °C, 4 h) (colour, cooking loss, Warner–Bratzler shear force, texture profile analysis and sensory assessment). It was found that ageing decreased redness, yellowness and chroma (<i>p</i> < 0.05) in the cross-section area of sous-vide cooked beef. The values of shear force, hardness, springiness and chewiness decreased during ageing (<i>p</i> < 0.05). The samples were scored similarly in sensory assessment, except for tenderness which was scored higher (<i>p</i> < 0.01) in the products obtained from 14 and 21 d aged beef compared to 4 d aged samples. Overall, the findings highlighted that, also in the production of sous-vide cooked beef, <i>longissimus lumborum</i> muscles should be aged for at least 14 days.