Meat Composition Measurement: Status of Applied Research on Instrument Assessment of Composition Since Completion of the 1994 National Beef Instrument Assessment Planning Symposium

In 1991, the beef industry initiated efforts to improve beef quality. But after four years, a 1995 National Beef Quality Audit (Smith et al., 1995) demonstrated that vast sums of money are still sacrificed due to quality shortfall. Almost everyone agrees that instrument technology would assist in developing a “quality-based” marketing system—permitting consumers to transmit preferences to producers and thereby allow correction of quality defects. Instrument assessment research was initiated in the 1970’s in the U.S. (Cross and Whittaker, 1992), but progress has been slow. In 1994, the Beef Product Technology Subcommittee of the National Live Stock and Meat Board (NLSMB) convened a National Beef Instrument Assessment Planning (NBIAP) Symposium to assess instrument technology and to recommend industry research focus. Research since the 1994 NBIAP Symposium will be explored here.