Beef flavor is an important sensory attribute when conducting sensory evaluation of beef. While there are multiple sensory tools available for assessing the level of beef flavor, the fact that beef flavor is not a single attribute, but multiple attributes, makes the sensory evaluation of its components challenging. While discriminative tests can be useful sensory tools for determining differences in beef flavor between beef products, they often do not provide quantitative differences in specific attributes. Descriptive sensory tools, mainly Meat Descriptive Attribute, Spectrum Descriptive Attribute, and Quantitative Descriptive Attribute testing methods, are the most common tools used to assess beef flavor differences. Some use the Free-Choice Profiling Method, but it is not common. Consumer sensory evaluation of beef can provide important information on consumer acceptance of beef products. 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
