Eating quality of European beef assessed at five research institutes

Loin steaks from 10 animals (five of each of two types) from each of eight European countries were assessed for eating quality at five institutes in Denmark, Ireland, England, France and the Federal Republic of Germany. All panels found wide variation in eating quality and many of the steaks were unacceptably tough. Although attempts to relate quality to production factors were often confounded, differences in post-slaughter handling, particularly between producing countries, dominated eating quality. Breed, sex, age or fatness had relatively little influence on eating quality in this trial. A common eight-category scale of tenderness/toughness was used in addition to each institute's usual descriptive scales for tenderness, flavour, juiciness and overall acceptability, employing four to eleven categories. Within panels, attribute scores were not independent and tenderness and flavour in combination were the best predictors of overall acceptability. Between panels, tenderness was highly interrelated, flavour and juiciness poorly interrelated. These findings, together with estimates of each panel's discrimination and the variation between individual assessors, are discussed in relation to standardisation and equivalence of sensory methodology.