Untrained consumer assessment of the eating quality of beef: 1. A single composite score can predict beef quality grades

Bonny, Sarah; Hocquette, Jean-François; Pethick, D.W.; Legrand, I.; Wierzbicki, Jerzy; Allen, Paul; Farmer, L.J.; Polkinghorne, Rod; Gardner, G.E.

doi:10.1017/s1751731116002305

Cited by 19 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(37 reference statements)

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“…In brief, there were 19 492 consumers and in all countries women outnumbered the men, except for Ireland. The majority of consumers came from households with 1 to 3 adults and 0 to 2 children (Bonny et al, 2016c). This is similar to the distribution of the demographics for the willingness to pay analysis (Table 1).…”

Section: Consumer Demographicssupporting

confidence: 68%

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Untrained consumer assessment of the eating quality of European beef: 2. Demographic factors have only minor effects on consumer scores and willingness to pay

Bonny

Gardner

Pethick

et al. 2017

Animal

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The beef industry must become more responsive to the changing market place and consumer demands. An essential part of this is quantifying a consumer's perception of the eating quality of beef and their willingness to pay for that quality, across a broad range of demographics. Over 19 000 consumers from Northern Ireland, Poland, Ireland and France each tasted seven beef samples and scored them for tenderness, juiciness, flavour liking and overall liking. These scores were weighted and combined to create a fifth score, termed the Meat Quality 4 score (MQ4) (0.3 × tenderness, 0.1 × juiciness, 0.3 × flavour liking and 0.3 × overall liking). They also allocated the beef samples into one of four quality grades that best described the sample; unsatisfactory, good-every-day, better-than-every-day or premium. After the completion of the tasting panel, consumers were then asked to detail, in their own currency, their willingness to pay for these four categories which was subsequently converted to a proportion relative to the goodevery-day category (P-WTP). Consumers also answered a short demographic questionnaire. The four sensory scores, the MQ4 score and the P-WTP were analysed separately, as dependant variables in linear mixed effects models. The answers from the demographic questionnaire were included in the model as fixed effects. Overall, there were only small differences in consumer scores and P-WTP between demographic groups. Consumers who preferred their beef cooked medium or well-done scored beef higher, except in Poland, where the opposite trend was found. This may be because Polish consumers were more likely to prefer their beef cooked well-done, but samples were cooked medium for this group. There was a small positive relationship with the importance of beef in the diet, increasing sensory scores by about 4% in Poland and Northern Ireland. Men also scored beef about 2% higher than women for most sensory scores in most countries. In most countries, consumers were willing to pay between 150 and 200% more for premium beef, and there was a 50% penalty in value for unsatisfactory beef. After quality grade, by far the greatest influence on P-WTP was country of origin. Consumer age also had a small negative relationship with P-WTP. The results indicate that a single quality score could reliably describe the eating quality experienced by all consumers. In addition, if reliable quality information is delivered to consumers they will pay more for better quality beef, which would add value to the beef industry and encourage improvements in quality.Keywords: consumer testing, beef, quality, demographics, Europe Implications A single quality descriptor of beef eating quality will likely be applicable to the entire European market due to the small impact of demographics on consumer scores. This descriptor could form the basis of an eating quality-based grading system for beef which would allow consumers to select beef of a desired quality when purchasing beef. As European consumers are also willing to pay more for better q...

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Section: Consumer Demographicssupporting

confidence: 68%

“…The distribution of the demographics for the sensory score analysis is detailed by Bonny et al (2016c). In brief, there were 19 492 consumers and in all countries women outnumbered the men, except for Ireland.…”

Section: Consumer Demographicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untrained consumer assessment of the eating quality of European beef: 2. Demographic factors have only minor effects on consumer scores and willingness to pay

Bonny

Gardner

Pethick

et al. 2017

Animal

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“…The MSA consumer evaluation methodology has been used to assess consumer liking across countries. Research using European [15,[58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69], New Zealand [70], Asian [71][72][73][74][75][76], South African [77], and United States consumers [47,[78][79][80] using the MSA consumer methods have been conducted. This research has established that consumers respond similarly to differences in tenderness, but flavor is more affected by cultural and environmentally learned behaviors in some countries.…”

Section: Beef Consumersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of Consumer Liking for Beef, Pork, and Lamb: A Review

Miller

2020

Foods

127

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Tenderness, juiciness, and flavor have been associated with consumer acceptance of beef, lamb, and pork. Drivers of consumer liking are interrelated across these species, but there are differences in consumer preferences. Animal age, animal diet, and subsequent marbling impact consumer liking across species. For beef, consumer research prior to the 1990s showed that tenderness was the main driver of liking. Consumer tenderness and juiciness liking are highly correlated. More recent research has shown that as overall tenderness improved and tenderness variation decreased, flavor has become a more important driver of beef consumer liking. Flavor is affected by consumer preparation methods, familiarity with different flavor presentations, and animal production systems. Animal diet impacts consumer perception of beef tenderness and flavor, especially when comparing forage-fed versus grain-fed beef. Flavor preferences vary across countries more so than preferences for beef based on consumer tenderness preferences and are most likely influenced by the consumption of locally produced beef and the flavor-derived type of beef traditionally consumed. Drivers of pork consumer liking have been shown to be affected by pH, color, water holding capacity, animal diet, and the presence of boar taint compounds. While tenderness and juiciness continue to be drivers of consumer liking for pork, flavor, as impacted by animal diet and the presence of boar taint compounds, continues to be a driver for consumer liking. For lamb, the flavor, as affected by diet, and animal age continue to be the main drivers of consumer liking. Lamb consumers vary across countries based on the level of consumption and preferences for flavor based on cultural effects and production practices.

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“…Our results confirm consumers' willingness to pay more for a system guarantying eating meat quality, the average extra cost being in the region of 5-7 Euros/kilogram of fresh meat. These orders of magnitude seem lower to those previously claimed by (Bonny et al 2017). Consumers are willing to pay for meat products from their own country of origin (Ehmke 2006;Loureiro and Umberger 2007).…”

Section: Willingness To Pay For Better Beefmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Much of the literature indicates that tenderness is the most important factor in determining consumer satisfaction (Verbeke et al 2010) even if, according to Bonny et al (2016Bonny et al ( , 2017, tenderness, flavour and overall liking appear to have similar weights. The fact that French people are generally satisfied with the quality of beef confirms the results of Normand et al (2014).…”

Section: Trends and Drivers Of Beef Consumption And Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meat consumption – what French consumers feel about the quality of beef?

Ellies-Oury

Lee

Jacob

et al. 2019

Italian Journal of Animal Science

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The first aim of this study conducted in France was to examine consumer habits concerning beef consumption, as well as any reasons, which may explain the relative decline in interest in beef consumption. Two surveys were conducted based on a sample of 625 beef consumers to analyse the frequency of their meat consumption and its evolution. The survey also aimed to explore consumers' understanding of the new labelling system, which was introduced in France in 2015 to indicate the eating quality potential of cuts with stars. Half of the respondents have reduced their beef consumption. Whereas inconsistency in eating quality is one reason among others which contribute to explain this decline, results showed that 70% of the respondents have not seen yet the new labels on beef. Nevertheless, this system represents a major progress for the French beef sector and should be developed further. Indeed, French consumers would be interested in a meat grading system based on tenderness as the one in Australia. Such a system could reduce the decline in beef consumption and even reverse this negative trend. HIGHLIGHTS The decline in meat consumption may be explained by the high price of beef, and concerns about health, environment, eating quality and animal welfare. A large proportion of the respondents (72%) is not aware of the new labelling system for beef in supermarket self-service aisles. Further developing this new system to a grading scheme similar to the 'Meat Standards Australia' would be judicious.

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Untrained consumer assessment of the eating quality of beef: 1. A single composite score can predict beef quality grades

Cited by 19 publications

References 23 publications

Untrained consumer assessment of the eating quality of European beef: 2. Demographic factors have only minor effects on consumer scores and willingness to pay

Untrained consumer assessment of the eating quality of European beef: 2. Demographic factors have only minor effects on consumer scores and willingness to pay

Drivers of Consumer Liking for Beef, Pork, and Lamb: A Review

Meat consumption – what French consumers feel about the quality of beef?

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