USDA MATURITY INDEXES AND PALATABILITY OF BEEF RIB STEAKS
Academic Article
Overview
Identity
Additional Document Info
Other
View All
Overview
abstract
In a population of 195 beef carcasses, as maturity increased (by whole USDA groups) from A to B, flavor, tenderness and overall palatability ratings for rib steaks decreased (P < .05); further increases in maturity (B vs. E) resulted in subsequent decreases (P < .05) in tenderness and overall palatability. Subdivision of whole maturity groups into thirds and subsequent data analyses supported precepts in USDA grade standards of declining palatability with advancing maturity, but the declines, when they occurred, were nearly linear through the extremes (from A to E+) and did not support the concept, in USDA grade standards, of a precipitous decline in eating satisfaction at or near the B+/C maturity line. Among seven carcass maturity indices, all were similarly and singularly related (P < .05) to palatability of rib steaks, with some measure of skeletal maturity (the best of these was color/shape of the rib bones) plus some measure of muscle maturity (the best of these was color of the longissimus muscle) combining (by means of multiple regression analyses) to predict tenderness (panel ratings and shear values) with maximum precision. Neither total pigment concentration (a chemical measure of muscle color), amount of etherextractable lipid (a chemical measure of intramuscular fatness) nor marbling score (a visual measure of intramuscular fatness) was able to explain more than about 7% of the observed variability in palatability ratings for cooked beef steaks. Data suggest that more attention should be paid to appearance of rib bones in a carcass (to better assess effects of maturity) and that less attention could be paid to differences between SLIGHT, SMALL and MODEST in marbling in the ribeyes, in attempting to predict, via USDA grading, the palatability of beef rib steaks. Copyright 1988, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved
