RELATIONSHIP OF SELECTED BEEF CARCASS TRAITS WITH MEAT PALATABILITY

ABSTRACT Relationships among selected carcass traits and cooked meat palatability were studied on 240 carcasses obtained from steers of different biological types produced under a wide range of feeding regimes. Breed type of steer or feeding regime had little or no effect on correlations among taste panel (TP) scores for tenderness, juiciness, flavor and general acceptability. Treatments also had little effect on nonsignificant (P > 0.05) correlations of conformation, lean color, lean texture and final maturity with TP traits. Late maturing breeds of steers and steers fed on low energy regimes were rated more youthful than early maturing breeds of steers, and steers fed on high energy regimes. Marbling, percentage of longissimus muscle (LM) fat, quality grade and adjusted fat thickness independently accounted for 2–3% of the variation in TP tenderness and 6–8% of the variation in TP acceptability. Regression analyses indicate that an increase of 30 units in marbling (scored: low Choice = 10; average Choice = 11; high Choice = 12; etc.) would have been required to make a one‐unit increase in TP tenderness (scored 1 through 7). No evidence of quadratic effects was observed for TP traits regressed on marbling or percentage LM fat.