What are the biochemical changes of post-harvest meat? does water loss? any fat loss?

Question

post-harvest meat = slaughtering of meat till being processed.. what are the biochemical changes??

Answer 1

I am not sure what you mean by post=harvest meat, but normally in just cooling the meat you have some moisture loss.  The fat should be the slowest to change unless rancidity sets in.  That would cause a slight increase in weight because it generally is due to oxidation.

Answer 2

Meat is rarely ever served fresh.  This is because when an animal dies, it stops producing ATP (adenosine triphosphate) and lactic acid begins to build up in the muscles, causing them to contract and become hard.  This process is known as rigor mortis.

Rigor mortis is not good eats, so meat is always allowed to age for a few days.  After several days, enzymes will have begun to break down the muscle tissue, allowing it to become soft again.

If the carcass is cooled too quickly, the muscle tissue can shrink, resulting in loss of water and nutrients.  Slaughterhouses generally use an electrical current to relax the muscle tissue to prevent this process, known as cold shortening, from occurring.

Answer 3

This sounds so serious as if you are mixing a question from your chemistry class with a touch of exploiting bias of an animal rights person.  So its hard to understand your intentions here, but then again it may be none of my business...  so my answer from "the farmer, one semester organic chemistry in college" answer is... A) very little  B) some  C) none.  Decomposition of meat when kept in coolers at appropriate temperatures have never resulted in any issues of spoilage or water loss that is of any concern to me or my customers.  I am sure there are some points of conversation at the cellular and microscopic level but I have beef processed, not harvested, aged in the cooler and then cut and packaged according to my customers requests.