Foods 2021, 10, x. https://doi.org/10.3390/xxxxx www.mdpi.com/journal/foods Type of the Paper (Article, Review, Communication, etc.) 1 Influence of marination with aromatic herbs and cold pressed 2 oils on Black Angus beef meat 3 Vasile-Gheorghe Vişan 1 , Maria Simona Chiş 2 *, Adriana Păucean 2 , Vlad Mureșan 2 , Andreea Pușcaș 2 , Laura Stan 2* , 4 Dan Cristian Vodnar 4 , Francisc Vasile Dulf 3 , Dorin Țibulcă 2 , Bogdan Alin Vlaic 1 , Iulian Eugen Rusu 2 , Csaba Balasz 5 Kadar 2 and Augustin Vlaic 1 6 1 Department of Fundamental Sciences, Faculty of Animal Science and Biotechnologies Cluj-Napoca, 7 University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, 3–5 Mănăştur Street, 400372 8 Cluj-Napoca, Romania; gelu.visan@yahoo.com (V.G.V.); bogdan.vlaic@usamvcluj.ro (B.V); 9 vlaic.augustin@gmail.com (V.A.) 10 2 Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, University of Agricultural 11 Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, 3–5 Mănăştur Street, 400372 Cluj -Napoca, Romania; 12 simona.chis@usamvcluj.ro (M.S.C.); adriana.paucean@usamvcluj.ro (A.P.); vlad.muresan@usamvcluj.ro 13 (V.M.); andreea.puscas@usamvcluj.ro (A.PU.); laurastan@usamvcluj.ro (L.S.); dorin.tibulca@usamvcluj.ro 14 (T.A.); iulian.rusu@usamvcluj.ro (I.E.R.); balasz-csaba@usamvcluj.ro (C.B.K.); 15 3 Department of Environmental and Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Agricultural 16 Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, 3–5 Mănăştur Street, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania; 17 francisc.dulf@usamvcluj.ro (F.V.D.) 18 4 Institute of Life Sciences, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, 3-5 19 Mănăștur Street, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania; dan.vodnar@usamvcluj.ro (D.C.V.) 20 21 * Correspondence: simona.chis@usamvcluj.ro; laurastan@usamvcluj.ro; Tel.: +40-264-596384 22 Abstract: Beef aging is one of the most common methods used for improving its qualities. The main 23 goal of the present study was to analyze the influence of different oils and herbs during marination 24 process on the nutritional, textural and sensorial characteristics of the final grilled sirloin samples. 25 In order to fulfill this goal, methods like GC-MS, HPLC/DAD/ESI-MS, HLPC-RID were performed 26 to quantify fatty acids, phenolic acids and organic acids, respectively. Textural and sensorial 27 analysis were made through CT 3 Texture Analyzer and hedonic test. The results showed a highly 28 improvement of the meat grilled samples in phenolic acids, textural and sensorial characteristics. 29 Pearson values indicate strong positive correlations between raw marinated samples and grilled 30 ones regarding their content in phenolic acids. Hardness, chewiness, gumminess decreased during 31 marination, meanwhile, resilience, and cohesiveness increased their values. Sensorial analysis 32 highlighted that meat samples marinated with olive oil and rosemary during 120h reached the 33 highest hedonic score among tested samples. 34 Keywords: marinated beef; polyphenols, flavonoids, hedonic test, textural. 35 36 1. Introduction 37 About 47% of the world’s beef production is produced by European Union, Brazil 38 and the United States. The world food meat consumption in 2030 is estimated to be 45.3 39 kg per capita and the consumers are demanding increasingly higher quality [1]. Beef meat 40 is mostly consumed due to its flavour and the complex composition of macronutrients, 41 the balanced composition of amino acids, vitamins from B group and high contents of 42 iron, zinc and phosphorus [2,3]. The USDA Food Composition database indicates the 43 following nutritional values for a raw beef top sirloin [3] meat with acceptable quality: an 44 Citation: Lastname, F.; Lastname, F.; Lastname, F. Title. Foods 2021, 10, x. https://doi.org/10.3390/xxxxx Academic Editor: Firstname Lastname Received: date Accepted: date Published: date Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Submitted for possible open access publication under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/b y/4.0/).