At the point of sale, consumers often use the cherry-red color of beef as an indicator of wholesomeness and quality of the product. Meat discoloration, which mainly results from oxidative browning, leads to consumer rejection and huge economic loss for the beef industry. Fresh meat color stability is determined by the postmortem interactions between myoglobin and several other biomolecules in skeletal muscle.
Post-translational modifications (PTM) are the covalent, and generally enzymatic, changes in proteins following protein biosynthesis by the addition or the removal of modifying group(s) at the amino acid level. PTM play a fundamental role in modulating protein’s functionality, turnover, and interactions with other proteins.