Enzymatic tenderizing and digestion of beef proteins in lab tests
What it found
Treating beef with tenderizing enzymes before simulated digestion broke down more protein and helped more small protein pieces survive the process.
This was measured in lab tests, not in people eating meat.
What they found
Animal and lab studies
More bitter protein pieces
In lab tests, both enzymes created protein fragments that scored higher on a bitterness scale. These fragments had energy values between 1714 and 1790 Cal/mol.
More protein broken down
Softening the beef with enzymes acted like an early digestion step. In later simulated gut digestion, the amount of broken-down protein rose by 4.5 to 17.3%.
Peptide mix changed
Lab analysis showed big differences in the types of protein fragments after digestion. More enzyme activity during tenderizing meant bigger changes in the fragment mix.
Fragments survived digestion
Beef treated with proteinase K or bromelain kept many more protein fragments intact during simulated digestion. Survival rates went up by 65.5% and 82.8%, possibly because the enzymes changed how the proteins interacted later.
What the authors conclude
- They suggest their work offers a new way to look at how enzyme tenderizing might affect meat nutrition.
How it was done
The authors wanted to see how softening beef with enzymes changes the way its proteins break down during digestion. They hoped this could shed light on how tenderizing affects the nutrition of meat.
They treated a specific beef muscle with two enzymes, proteinase K and bromelain, to soften it. One test used proteinase K for 0.5 h. They then put the treated beef through a lab model of human stomach and gut digestion and measured the resulting protein fragments.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- These are lab tests using simulated digestion, so they cannot show what happens when people eat tenderized beef. The results do not tell us if these changes make beef better or worse for human health.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Key Laboratory of Meat Processing, MOA; Key Laboratory of Meat Processing and Quality Control, MOE; Nanjing Agricultural University, P. R. China
The paper
- Title
- Peptidomic Investigation of the Interplay between Enzymatic Tenderization and the Digestibility of Beef Semimembranosus Proteins
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Animals and lab studies
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Zhao D, Xu Y, Gu T, et al (2020). Peptidomic Investigation of the Interplay between Enzymatic Tenderization and the Digestibility of Beef Semimembranosus Proteins. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry. doi:10.1021/acs.jafc.9b06618PubMed 31820954DOI
Summary written 1 Oct 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error