The Influence of Horse Age, High-Pressure Technique and Various Heat Treatment Methods on the Quality of Horse Meat

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the effect of horse age, high-pressure cooking, and various heat-treatment methods on the quality of horse meat. The research material consisted of samples of the longissimus thoracis muscle obtained from 14 horse carcasses from two age groups. Samples of the <i>longissimus thoracis</i> muscle were subjected to traditional cooking (TC), sous-vide cooking (S-V), high-pressure cooking (HHP), HHP + TC, and HHP + S-V. The chemical composition, physicochemical properties, color parameters, pigment levels, texture parameters, and sensory properties of the meat were determined. Exposing horsemeat samples to high pressureand in combination with various heat treatment methods resulted in a color change, increasing the lightness (L*) and decreasingthe metmyoglobin (Mb•O₂) level. It was found that the combination of treatments used in both age groups resulted in an increase in texture parameters of horse meat samples compared to the control sample (<i>p</i> < 0.05). The use of the HHP, HHP + TC, and HHP + S-V techniques led to a significant increase in the TBARS index in both age groups to a level above 2 mg MDA/kg compared to the control samples. Exposing horse meat to TC and the combination of HHP + TC and HHP + S-V resulted in increased weight loss, which ranged from 42.91% to 48.56%.