An equipment used to measure sheep meat tenderness was designed and manufactured similar to Warner-Bratzler shear force devices .The device measures cutting force of meat sample strips (10×1.3 cm longitudinal cross-section). Shear force was measured with stainless steel blade at shear angles 10°. The blade moves by hydraulic pressure on longitudinal axis of the meat muscle. Units of measurement appear as psi and were corrected by an equation to get the results as Kg units.
Two types of sheep meat were used: The leg muscles of lambs at 6 months age and leg muscles of aged ewes at 6 years age to show the difference in meat tenderness, and the accuracy of the device. Many measurements have been taken for comparison. The chemical parameters used were , myofibrillarfragmentationindex (MFI),protein solubility of myofibrillarproteinandcollagencontent.Thephysicalmeasurementsused were, fragmentation index (FI), water holding capacity (WHC) and fibersdiameter.Sensoryevaluation of flavour,juiciness,tendernessandoverallacceptanceforsampleswerecarriedoutbyatastepanel.
The results showed a positive significantcorrelationbetweenthechemical,physicalandsensorytestswith the shear force measured by the developed device