Mechanisms and strategies to tailor dry-aged meat flavour

Background: Dry-ageing of fresh meat has been the subject of growing research interest over the past 20 years. To date, inconsistencies in addressing the impact of dry-ageing on the eating qualities of meat are found in the literature, apparently arising from diverse processing conditions. Scope and approach: This review aims to critically assess recent work published on the impact of dry-ageing on physical and biochemical changes of meat, mostly on beef muscles, and to establish the mechanisms which impart the development of dry-aged flavour. This review discusses the factors affecting the mechanisms and proposes strategies to tailor dry-aged flavour for industrial applications. Key findings and conclusions: The advantage of dry-ageing over commonly used wet-ageing is in flavour development, although the reported results are not consistent. Recent developments in metabolomics and volatile research have advanced the knowledge in unlocking biomolecular signatures for dry-aged meat flavour. The underlying mechanism for flavour development of dry-aged meat is driven by an interplay between microbial activity (mostly yeast and moulds), lipid oxidation and dehydration. Flavour profile of dry-aged meat varies due to factors like animal sources (e.g. using bull beef and lamb), intramuscular fat content, use of novel dry-ageing techniques (e.g. in-bag dry-ageing and combined ageing regimes) and ageing parameters. Tailored flavour profiles and consistent quality can be achieved through manipulating these key elements when designing dryageing strategies. Release of lipid-derived volatiles and flavour precursors further contributes to enhancing the flavour of cooked dry-aged meat.