Relationship between beef consumer tenderness perception and Warner-Bratzler shear force

Area of Science:

• Meat Science
• Sensory Analysis
• Consumer Behavior

Background:

• Beef tenderness is a key quality attribute influencing consumer satisfaction.
• Objective measures like Warner-Bratzler shear (WBS) force are used to predict tenderness.
• Understanding consumer perception of WBS-defined tenderness is crucial for industry standards.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess consumer ability to distinguish beef tenderness levels defined by WBS force.
• To correlate WBS measurements with consumer sensory ratings of tenderness.
• To propose an optimized WBS classification system for consumer-relevant tenderness categories.

Main Methods:

• A sensory panel of 220 consumers rated beef tenderness (5-point scale) for 60 samples.
• Samples varied in commercial category, breed, and aging length.
• WBS force was measured using an Instron device, and correlation with sensory data was calculated.

Main Results:

• A strong negative correlation (-0.72) was found between WBS force and sensory tenderness ratings.
• Consumers had difficulty distinguishing between the two toughest WBS categories.
• A revised 3-category WBS scale (tough, intermediate, tender) significantly improved consumer discrimination (P<0.01).

Conclusions:

• Consumers can reliably distinguish broad categories of beef tenderness (tough, intermediate, tender) using WBS force values.
• WBS force values >52.68N and <42.87N reliably classify tough and tender beef, respectively.
• Optimizing WBS classification enhances the alignment between objective measures and consumer perception of beef tenderness.