Carcase grading for quality and efficiency – underpinning future sustainability of beef and lamb. Part I.

This session presented at the recent combined EAAP/WAAP in Lyon described research on carcase grading to predict the true carcase value which is a product of eating quality of the cuts sold (determining price/kg) and lean meat yield determining the amount of meat sold. The results clearly show that it is possible to develop more sophisticated commercial grading systems underpinning true carcase value by using both traditional and new carcase grading technologies, importantly linked to the prediction of eating quality using untrained consumer based sensory testing. The new grading technologies based on X-ray and vision-based devices combined with rigorous statistical analysis, will lead to improved accuracies and precision. Even new traits like chemically measured intramuscular fat may replace human based visual grading of marbling. This will also facilitate carcase traits to be routinely used to underpin commercial genetic evaluation programmes.