Beef meat colour is impacted by both myoglobin status and the light scattering properties of the muscle, and the specific causative scattering elements of the latter are still unknown. We hypothesize that stretching muscles during rigor will generate a structure which favours light scattering, by increasing the length of the I-band (longer sarcomeres) and that a high rigor temperature will cause protein reconfiguration, changing the muscle structure and promoting light scattering. Muscle fibre fragments were isolated from four beef M. sternomandibularis and subjected to stretching (plus, minus) and three incubation temperatures (5, 15, 35 °C). Reflectance confocal laser scanning microscopy (rCLSM) revealed sarcomere stretching alone was not solely responsible for light scattering development. A high rigor temperature (35 °C) was more favourable for light scattering. Stretching and taking muscle into rigor at 35 °C promoted transverse shrinkage of muscle fibres and increased light scattering and could be applied post-mortem (PM) to reduce the occurrence of problematic dark meat.

牛肉的颜色会受到肌红蛋白状态和肌肉的光散射特性的影响，而后者的具体致病性散射元素仍然未知。我们假设，在严格的条件下拉伸肌肉会通过增加I波段的长度（较长的肉瘤）而产生有利于光散射的结构，而较高的严格温度会导致蛋白质重构，改变肌肉结构并促进光散射。从四个牛肉胸骨M. nomnomibibisis中分离出肌纤维碎片并进行拉伸（正负）和三个孵育温度（5、15、35°C）。反射共聚焦激光扫描显微镜（rCLSM）显示，仅肌小节的拉伸并不是光散射发展的唯一原因。较高的严格温度（35°C）更有利于光散射。在35°C的条件下拉伸肌肉并使肌肉变得更加僵硬，可促进肌肉纤维的横向收缩并增加光散射，可以在验尸（PM）后进行使用，以减少出现问题的深色肉的发生。