Consumer preferences of beef tenderness and mechanical measurements

The tenderness of carcasses of ten bulls of Norwegian Red breed was analyzed by sensory and mechanical analyses. Four samples representing the range of tenderness in the material were served to 118 consumers in an in-house test. The consumers rated the samples for the degree of tenderness. High correlation was found between sensory analyses and the consumer ratings of tenderness, r = 0.96 (P < 0.0005), and between Warner Bratzler Shear force values and the consumer ratings, r = - 0.87 (P < 0.005). The consumers found it easier to evaluate the very tender and very tough samples, while the moderately tough samples were more difficult to evaluate, and were mixed up in both the sensory and consumer analyses. A lower percent of women than men considered each sample as acceptably tender and women in general used a lower grade to describe the degree of tenderness of the samples. Indications of high variety of consumer acceptability at different levels of tenderness, suggests a need for a larger study of tenderness levels in the areas where large changes in acceptability are found, and of responses from different consumer groups.