New Testing System for Beef Tenderness Developed

November 18, 1999

Beef carcasses that will yield steaks with above average tenderness can be identified with about 94% accuracy using a testing system developed by Agricultural Research Service scientists. Retailers also will be able to charge prices commensurate with the meat's tenderness; consumers are will to pay more, researchers have found.

Until now a shopper's best chance of getting a stead that would cook up tender and tasty was to pick one well marbled with tiny flecks of fat. But the scientists at the Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Center (MARC) in Clay Center, NE, found that marbling accounts for only about 10% of variation in beef rib eye steak tenderness.

Researchers found that 51% of consumers polled were willing to pay an average of $1.84 more per pound for a steak that had been rated as tender.

Under the MARC classification system, a rib eye steak is taken from a chilled carcass, trimmed and cooked. A sample then is sheared and measured for tenderness with an electronic testing machine that supplies data to a computer. A computerized image analysis of the inch-thick rib eye provides an estimate of how many pounds of retail beef the carcass will yield after bones are removed and fat is trimmed.

At least five meat processing companies are considering adopting the system. Small and medium sized beef packers easily could adapt the technology to normal operations, says ARS animal physiologist Mohammad Koohmaraie who heads the MARC meats research unit.

Marketing efficiency and farm production also could improve from the new system, Koohmaraie says. Live animals with tags or some other form of identification can be matched with data from the computerized image analysis. The information can be conveyed to feed lot managers, helping them better master efficient ways to produce quality beef that's not overly fat. Cattle breeders can use the information to improve herd genetics.

More information can be found on the Internet at http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov99/beef1199.htm.