Postmortem environmental factors such as chill time before ribbing, evaluation time after ribbing, interstate shipment, ribeye condition and ribeye cover condition were related to beef carcass lean maturity and marbling evaluations. Also, effects of lighting type and intensity on the evaluation of beef quality factors were studied. Beef carcasses chilled 48 h or less before ribbing required additional chilling after ribbing (greater than 30 min) in order to optimize lean maturity and marbling scores. I n general, carcasses that are thoroughly chilled and have covered ribeye surfaces are likely to maintain or develop more youthful lean maturity evaluation scores during shipment. Carcasses that were less chilled at initial evaluations and had ribeye surfaces that remained substantially covered during transportation were more likely to increase in marbling scores during transportation. Carcasses chilled for only 24 h at initial evaluation and that had a Small or lower amount of marbling were more subject to change in marbling score during shipment than carcasses that were more thoroughly chilled or carcasses that had higher levels of marbling. Lean maturity evaluations were optimized when beef carcasses were evaluated under high incandescent (1937 lux) lighting, whereas marbling scores were optimized when beef carcasses were evaluated under medium incandescent (1076 lux) lighting. Copyright 1986, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved
