The Use of Video Image Analysis and Instrumentation to Predict Beef Palatability

Since 1975, USDA has utilized marbling (combined with physiological maturity) as the primary determinant in beef quality grades. The decision to include marbling as a primary predictor of eating quality was based on the premise that marbling is positively correlated to tenderness, which was later substantiated by scientists who found this to, in-fact, be true (McBee and Wiles, 1967, Jennings et al., 1978, Tatum et al., 1980, Dolezal et al., 1982). Smith et al. (1987) illustrated how marbling could be effectively used to sort carcasses based on palatability, when the population exhibited the entire range of possible quality grades. However, in the current market, over 80% (87.5% as of March 6, 2000), of the beef carcasses produced in the United States grade USDA Select and Choice (USDA, 2000) with a large portion of these carcasses having Slight and Small degrees of marbling. Within this narrow range of marbling scores, marbling does not do an adequate job of sorting beef carcasses into differing palatability groups (Smith et al., 1995). Despite efforts to continually update Official USDA Quality Grade standards to more effectively sort beef carcasses into differing palatability groups, new technologies with the ability to more precisely sort carcass on the basis of beef palatability are necessary.