ABSTRACT

Meat quality is not one single value, but encompasses a diverse array of characteristics relating to eating quality, nutritional level, and technological performance; broader de›nitions can also include safety aspects. For the consumer, sensory characteristics including appearance, color, and palatability (tenderness, texture, juiciness, and ¯avor) are key (McIlveen and Buchanan 2001, Verbeke et al. 2009), while nutritive aspects include composition, protein content, fatty acid pro›le, and mineral level (Leheska et al. 2008, Scollan et al. 2005). In terms of sensory acceptability, which attribute is most important depends on geographic location (Aaslyng et al. 2007), but tenderness is usually considered the biggest driver (Aaslyng 2009). When most products are tender, juiciness and ¯ avor play bigger roles in liking (Miller et al. 2001). The technological aspects of quality center round the ability of muscle to interact with processing conditions to produce optimal fresh and processed products. The ability of the muscle to bind water, the pH in the early postmortem period, and the ultimate post-rigor pH are valuable indicators of technological performance (Poso and Puolanne 2005).