Consumer sensory evaluations of aging effects on beef quality

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Meat Science
• Consumer Behavior

Background:

• Tenderness is a critical sensory attribute influencing consumer acceptance of meat.
• Meat aging is a common post-mortem process to enhance meat quality, particularly tenderness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of aging duration on beef tenderness and other quality attributes.
• To compare consumer perception of tenderness changes with objective measurements.

Main Methods:

• Beef steaks from various quality grades were aged for 0, 7, and 14 days.
• Sensory evaluation by 522 consumers and Warner-Bratzler shear force measurements were conducted.
• Physical characteristics, pH, lipid, and water content were also analyzed.

Main Results:

• Tenderness increased and Warner-Bratzler shear values decreased with extended aging.
• Consumers perceived the most significant tenderness improvement within the first 7 days of aging.
• Aging duration did not affect juiciness, flavor, pH, or water/lipid content.

Conclusions:

• Seven days of aging is sufficient to achieve most of the potential tenderness improvement in beef.
• While objective measures show continued improvement, consumer perception plateaus earlier.
• Aging primarily impacts tenderness, with minimal effects on other sensory and physical attributes.