The effect of PEF on the quality of beef loins (1 day post-mortem) and topsides (1 and 3 day postmortem) was investigated using a range of treatment intensities. The investigated parameters reported here are purge loss, cooking loss and meat tenderness (shear force) to identify the optimum PEF treatment conditions for each muscle that will be used subsequently for investigating colour and lipid stabilities.

The tenderness of the loin samples was found to benefit from PEF treatment (19.5% reduction in the shear force) regardless the electrical input whereas the level of tenderness of the topsides was increased by increasing the treatment frequency (4.1, 10.4 and 9.1% reduction in the shear force at 20, 50 and 90 Hz, respectively). Higher purge loss (%) and lower cooking loss (%) were found in PEF treated samples, but the total losses were similar.