Assessment of commercial lamb meat quality by British and Spanish taste panels

Trained sensory panels in Britain and Spain assessed loin meat from commercial lambs purchased in Spain, which included Welsh lamb (imported from Britain) and two Spanish breeds (Merino and Rasa Aragonesa). The British panel also assessed British lamb purchased in local butcher shops and supermarkets. Sensory panels, in each country, received meat from the same lambs and used their local methods of cooking and assessment. Spanish panels used unstructured line scales to measure lamb odour intensity, tenderness, juiciness, lamb flavour intensity and two hedonic scales of flavour liking and overall liking. The British panel used 8 point category scales with the same attributes. Results from both panels in objective parameters were in agreement, hence showing that different trained sensory panels may arrive at the same conclusion. However, when panellists were allowed to make hedonic judgements (preference), the British panel preferred British lamb and the Spanish panel preferred Spanish lamb. This finding has important consequences for lamb producers who export their lambs and demonstrates that the underlying reasons for different preferences should be investigated. Production variables are discussed in relation to their influence on lamb eating quality and as a way to tailor lamb eating quality attributes familiar to consumers in the importing country.