Palatability of Beef Strip Loin Steaks Representing Various Marbling and Maturity Levels from Grain-Fed Beef

This study compared palatability traits of beef strip loin steaks with varying marbling scores from young and mature grain-fed beef. Strip loins (n = 150) were selected from grain fed cattle representing ten treatments with the following USDA marbling scores: Slightly Abundant or greater (SLAB+), Moderate or Modest (MD/MT), Small (SM), Slight (SL), and Traces or Practically Devoid (TR/PD) from young “A” maturity carcasses (Y) and mature “C” or greater maturity carcasses (M). Subprimals were fabricated into 2.5-cm steaks at 21 d postmortem and stored frozen until further analysis. Consumer (n = 120) sensory panelists evaluated cooked steaks for tenderness, juiciness, flavor liking, and overall liking. Trained panelists (n = 15 sessions) evaluated each sample for initial and sustained juiciness, initial and sustained tenderness, flavor intensity, and off-flavor intensity. For all traits, consumer and trained panelists’ scores generally decreased with decreasing marbling score, regardless of maturity. According to consumers, maturity had no effect on juiciness or flavor liking within each marbling score, except flavor liking of SLAB+ was greater (P < 0.05) for young than mature carcasses. Conversely, young carcasses had greater tenderness scores than mature within all marbling categories except SM, which translated to greater overall liking of MD/MT, SL, and TR/PD of young compared to their mature counterparts (P < 0.05). Trained panelists detected very few differences between young and mature samples within their respective marbling score; however, M-MD/MT had lower initial and sustained tenderness coupled with greater off-flavor intensity than Y-MD/MT (P < 0.05). Mature samples with SLAB+ and MD/MT marbling were rated greater than or equal to Y-SM for all traits, indicating the presence of marbling from feeding a grain diet prior to harvest may elicit a similar eating experience to young beef by offsetting negative palatability traits often associated with mature beef.