Review: Improving the nutritional, sensory and market value of meat products from sheep and cattle

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

“…With the exception of sex and carcass weight, other traits such as rib fat depth, marbling score, ultimate pH, ossification, and hump height (estimate of Bos indicus content) are used by MSA to predict beef eating quality. All of these attributes related to carcass quality can be good references for producers to target the value proposition between commercial carcass quality and eating quality [ 2 ]. For instance, as the marbling score is a key component of beef quality, there are several mechanisms available to breeders to improve this attribute through genetics, animal type, carcass weight and fat level, high-energy diets, and maturity patterns, to ultimately improve the quality of beef products for consumers [ 9 ].…”

“…Beef quality is of paramount importance to consumers since consumer perception of quality determines the decision to purchase and repeat purchase, which is of utmost importance for the development and success of the beef market and industry. Beef quality is multifactorial, and consumer perception of beef quality mainly depends on four dimensions: (1) search quality (visual appeal): the morphological property of beef such as the appearance (e.g., color, visible fat), technological, and convenience quality attributes (e.g., cooking yield, shelf life); (2) experience quality (sensory appeal): the eating experience of beef such as beef tenderness, juiciness, and flavor liking; (3) credence quality: the safety, nutritional, and health value of a product and other additional values related to certain attributes such as animal welfare and environmental sustainability; (4) quality of value (cost effectiveness): the cost/price of the product is perceived to correspond as much as possible to the value and image of the product [ 1 , 2 ].…”

“…More precisely, consumers’ inability to predict their own quality experience after purchase is sometimes due to the scarcity of extrinsic cues and misinterpretation of intrinsic cues. For instance, a higher marbling level may not be good for the credence quality for normal consumers, but it is actually good for the eating quality of the product [ 1 , 2 ]. In this situation, an appropriate extrinsic cue is needed to inform consumers of the relevant eating quality through the visible marbling.…”

“…In this system, beef eating quality is consistently guaranteed by a specified quality grade and a money-back guarantee. Indeed, the quality of beef that consumers receive is that for which they are prepared to pay [ 2 ] that ensures consumer satisfaction to large extent. In addition, the price premiums generated predominantly from the MSA-guaranteed quality are being noticed by the Australian beef industry [ 6 ].…”

Breed dependent regulatory mechanisms of beneficial and non-beneficial fatty acid profiles in subcutaneous adipose tissue in cattle with divergent feed efficiency

“… 13 and Pethick et al . 14 , the impact of meat-derived FAs on human health has been extensively discussed, which specifically emphasized the importance of the long-chain n-3 PUFA of the meat products derived from pasture-based systems in lowering the risk of fatal coronary heart disease. Both studies claimed that ruminant meat-derived long-chain n-3 PUFAs are essential for human health.…”