Relationship Between Meat Quality Characteristics, Intramuscular Fat and Marbling in Greek Cattle Carcasses

Abstract

IntroductIonM eat, especially that originated from beef, is considered of utmost importance part of human diet due to its valuable nutrient content (Scollan et al., 2006). Meat beef production is, also, one of the most valuable driver of world's livestock economy, with significant contribution to local, national and international trade, economy and society cohesion. The European Union is ranked at the third position in beef production after United States and Brazil. Taken together the beef production of the aforementioned countries represents roughly the 50% of world's beef (FAO, 2021).Beef carcass characteristics affect not only meat quality but also farmers' profitability and consumers' preferences. Overall meat quality is determined by a variety of factors including among others intramuscular fat, water absorption, color and pH. Marbling, which is defined as the amount and spatial distribution of visible white flecks of intramuscular fat being present in the lean of the longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle, is considered, also, as an important organoleptic characteristic affecting many qualitive and palatability characteristics of meat such as color, tenderness, juiciness