Processes for measuring, communicating and valuing eating quality and saleable meat yield in the Australian beef value chain: current status and future opportunities

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, the Australian beef industry has developed world-leading consumer grading technology, Meat Standards Australia (MSA), to predict the eating performance of beef meals more consistently. The traditional measure of meat quality has largely been associated with increased presence of intramuscular fat, or marbling, to enhance flavour, juiciness and tenderness. The research collated by MSA demonstrated the interconnectivity of pre and post-slaughter treatments with the traditional measurements of marbling, intramuscular fat and ossification on consumer palatability scores. Yet, in beef pricing systems, quantity measures are based simply on carcass weight, not the yield of s..