Modelling Meat Quality Attributes

Recent meat demand models incorporate demand functions for cuts of meat rather than whole carcasses. However, parameters for “meat quality” are seldom included in such models. Modelling difficulty arises as meat cuts are heterogeneous in their quality attributes. Meat quality may be assessed by measurement of attributes including tenderness, juiciness and flavour. Cooking method and cooking time are the two primary factors that affect meat-eating quality. The purpose of this paper is to show how meat quality parameters relate to one another for beef cuts. A quality index for tenderness, juiciness and flavour can be incorporated directly into demand functions. Contributed Paper: AARES 45 Annual Conference, 23-25 January 2001, Adelaide, South Australia. ____________________________________________________________________ This research was sponsored by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA). The views presented in this paper are strictly those of the author and do not reflect the views, beliefs or intentions of MLA. *Contact Information: P.O. Box 646210, Pullman, WA 99164-6210, USA. Email: [email protected] Farrell, AARES 2001. 1