Australian and United States Consumer Acceptance of Beef Brisket Cooked Using the Low and Slow Barbeque Method

Meat Standards Australia (MSA) sensory protocols have been effectively utilized in beef for international consumers employing several cooking methods. Our objective was to compare the consumer response of Australian and American consumers to paired beef brisket samples utilizing a newly developed low and slow cooking method. Briskets were collected from Australian carcasses with diverse eating quality. Half of the briskets (n = 24) were retained in Australia and their pair was exported to Texas for consumer sensory testing. Naïve consumers (Australia; n = 240) and familiar consumers (USA; n = 240) evaluated paired barbequed briskets for tenderness, juiciness, flavor liking, and overall liking from 0 to 100 using a visual analogue scale, and a weighted composite meat quality score was later calculated. Australian consumers scored briskets lower for tenderness (-4.84 ± 1.70 points) and juiciness (-4.44 ± 1.55 points) and higher for flavor liking (3.48 ± 1.58 points); however, there was no difference between the countries for overall liking (p = 0.75) and combined meat quality score (p = 0.88). Differences between Australian and US consumers' evaluations indicate that there is an impact of cultural background, potentially driven by Australia's naivety to the low and slow barbeque cooking method.