Abstract: The shear force and textural properties (hardness, elasticity and chewiness) of Ningxia Tan lamb meat stored at −80 ℃ (control), −2, −18 or 4 ℃ for 7 days were determined by cysteine oxidative modification proteomics. Meanwhile, the cysteine oxidation sites were identified, and the Pearson’s correlation was used to analyze the correlation between the oxidation intensity of significantly differential oxidation sites (SDOS) and the quality indicators of refrigerated Tan lamb meat. The results showed that compared with the control group, the shear force and texture characteristics of lamb meat in the experimental groups were significantly reduced (P < 0.05), and 25 SDOS proteins (including 10 structural proteins, 8 metabolic enzymes, 2 degradative enzymes and 5 other proteins) were significantly correlated with at least one quality indicator (P < 0.05), which could be used as potential biomarkers to evaluate changes in the tenderness and texture of lamb meat during storage.

Key words: Tan lamb meat; tenderness; cysteine oxidative modification proteomics; protein oxidation; texture