Demographic factors have only minor effects on a consumer’s perception of the eating quality of beef

The beef industry must re spond to the changing market place and consumer demands. An essential part of this is quantifying consumer perception of beef quality across a broad range of demographics. Over 19, 000 consumers from four European countries tasted seven beef samples and sco red them for tenderness, juiciness, flavour liking and overall liking. Consumers also answered a short demographic questionnaire. The four sensory scores were analysed as dependent variables in linear mixed effects models. A fifth model was also establishe d using a weighted combination of the four sensory scores termed the MQ4 score (0. 3 *tenderness, 0.1*juiciness, 0. 3 *flavour liki ng and 0.3*overall liking). The answers to the demographic questionnaire were analys ed as fixed effects in the models. Consumer, session, country, serve order and the quality of the previous sample were controlled for in the analysis. Overall , there were only small differences in a consumer’s perception of beef eating quality between demographic groups. This indicates that a single quality descriptor could reliably predict eating quality for the entire market, providing a basis for a widespread, eating quality based, beef grading system in Europe