Consumer Perception of Beef Quality and How to Control, Improve and Predict It? Focus on Eating Quality

Abstract

Quality refers to the characteristics of products that meet the demands and expectations of the end users. Beef quality is a convergence between product characteristics on one hand and consumers’ experiences and demands on the other. This paper reviews the formation of consumer beef quality perception, the main factors determining beef sensory quality, and how to measure and predict beef eating quality at scientific and industrial levels. Beef quality is of paramount importance to consumers since consumer perception of quality determines the decision to purchase and repeat the purchase. Consumer perception of beef quality undergoes a multi-step process at the time of purchase and consumption in order to achieve an overall value assessment. Beef quality perception is determined by a set of quality attributes, including intrinsic (appearance, safety, technological, sensory and nutritional characteristics, convenience) and extrinsic (price, image, livestock farming systems, commercial strategy, etc.) quality traits. The beef eating qualities that are the most valued by consumers are highly variable and depend mainly on the composition and characteristics of the original muscle and the post-mortem processes involved in the conversion of muscle into meat, the mechanisms of which are summarized in this review. Furthermore, in order to guarantee good quality beef for consumers in advance, the prediction of beef quality by combining different traits in scenarios where the animal, carcass, and muscle cuts can be evaluated is also discussed in the current review.

— Invited Review — Factors affecting beef quality and nutrigenomics of intramuscular adipose tissue deposition

“…Meat tenderness depends on several factors, including background toughness related to connective tissue, the degree of muscle contraction, muscle myofibril degradation by proteolysis during aging, i.m. adipose tissue content, and protein denaturation during cooking [30][31][32]. The Warner-Bratzler shear force is an instrumentally measured value of tenderness.…”

“…Meat flavor is a complex sensation that involves a combination of olfactory, gustatory, and trigeminal sensations that detect basic taste and aroma [ 33 ]. Meat juiciness is characterized by the perceived amount of juice and the level of lubrication during mastication of the meat in the mouth [ 30 ].…”

“…Beef yield is determined by several criteria, depending on the country [ 30 ]. In Korea and Japan, yield grade (YG) is characterized by the edible percentage of the meat, and is determined by the combination of carcass weight, eye-muscle area, and backfat thickness (or subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness) [ 3 ].…”

Recent Developments and Applications of Nanosystems in the Preservation of Meat and Meat Products

“…The sensorial properties may or not change, according to the purpose, for example, it has been shown that nanoemulsion does not change the appearance of the food when added, but in other cases, it can be used for delivery of lipophilic ingredients such as flavor components, then they can mask unpleasant tastes and odors, as in fish oils. They can also help reduce calories by increasing the water and/or air content as in nanoemulsions, such as ice cream, reducing sugar and oil content by decreasing the size of air bubbles, and thus increasing creaminess [ 16 ]. For example, the use of nanoemulsions with Zataria multiflora and cinnamaldehyde essential oils for the preservation of ground beef patties cooked in a microwave showed better sensorial properties, improving this characteristic [ 17 ].…”

Genome-wide association studies on collagen contents trait for meat quality in Hanwoo.

“…Recently, consumers prefer tender meat to fatty meat. Among various meat traits, tenderness and texture of cattle are among the most important factors affecting the quality evaluation of consumers [3][4][5].…”