Sensory characteristics of meat from steers of various breeds and rearing intensities

The most common category of young cattle slaughtered for beef in Sweden is bulls of dairy breed, most often reared indoors. There is however a potential in raising steers (castrated bulls) for slaughter on semi-natural pasture, which may have an impact on sensory properties of the meat. Furthermore, weight gain and carcass characteristics may be improved by crossing dairy breeds with specialised beef breeds. In combination with the new technique of sex-sorted dairy semen, beef breed semen can be used to the less superior cows in the herd without jeopardizing an adequate number of replacement heifers from the superior cows. The aim of the study was to investigate whether there are any differences in sensory meat quality between cross bred and purebred cattle and between two rearing intensities including semi-natural pasture. Sensory properties were evaluated by a trained, analytical panel consisting of six assessors by the use of descriptive analysis. The intensity of iron, acidic, tallow, milky and barny odour as well as metallic, barny and gamey flavour and basic tastes were assessed in triplicate along with attributes describing the appearance and texture of the meat. Differences were mainly found in appearance and texture attributes, but also gamey flavour and the intensity of umami were affected by the rearing and breeding regimes. The meat quality results from this study will be combined with results from other disciplines such as animal science, business administration and environmental science. It is important to be able to demonstrate various possible added values that comes from pasture-based beef production systems under Swedish conditions