Best Practices

AMSA Exclusive: Relationships between descriptive beef flavor attributes and consumer liking


Dmitry Idanov via iStock

By Guest Contributor on 1/4/2016

Editor's note: This is part of an occasional series of exclusive articles provided by authors commissioned by the American Meat Science Association in cooperation with Meatingplace. The article is taken from the AMSA 68th Reciprocal Meat Conference Proceedings.

To gauge beef demand, the industry recently has focused on the need to understand the various factors that affect not only beef flavor but also the components of beef flavor and how to tie that in to consumer preferences.

Texas A&M University and Kansas State Universities developed a beef whole muscle lexicon, a list of flavor attributes with definitions and industry references. This gives the beef industry and scientists a tool to measure the many attributes that may be part of beef flavor using trained sensory panelists. The lexicon may be accessed in the recently published AMSA Cookery and Sensory Guidelines at meatscience.org/sensory.

However, beef flavor is very complex. Not only is it composed of multiple attributes, but beef flavor also is the result of chemical reactions during cooking. Therefore, cooking has a significant affect on the development of flavors within a beef cut.

Everything from “butter” to “sour” flavors

To understand the impact of beef flavor attributes on consumer preferences, researchers from Texas A&M and Kansas State universities conducted a consumer study using 240 heavy beef eaters – consumers who eat beef three or more times per week. Consumers in four cities evaluated 16 beef treatments that differed by cut, degree of doneness, cooking method and USDA Quality grade. Those same cuts were evaluated by trained sensory panelists using the beef flavor lexicon.

Researchers found that:

  • consumers’ overall preference was driven first by their overall flavor liking;
  • consumers liked beef samples that they rated high for both beef flavor and grilled flavor;
  • descriptive flavor attributes most closely related with overall consumer liking were “fat-like flavor” with “brown/roasted,” “butter,” and “salty somewhat” related to overall consumer liking;
  • consumers liked Choice top loin steaks cooked on a grill to temperatures between 58°C and 80°C
  • they liked Choice top sirloin steaks cooked on the grill to 80°C; and
  • they preferred high-pH top loin steaks cooked on the grill to 80°C.

Additionally, consumers did not like steaks or roasts that had “cardboardy,” “warmed-over flavors,” “liver-like,” “sour,” “aromatic” and “musty” flavors. When beef steaks were cooked on a clamshell grill, they had higher levels of negative descriptive beef flavor attributes and slightly lower consumer liking ratings.

Light, heavy beef eaters offer similar experiences

The Texas A&M and Kansas State researchers conducted a second study using light beef eaters – consumers who eat beef once or twice a week. The study used the same beef cuts as in the previous study, except beef tenderloin steaks were added. Additionally, consumers were asked their evaluations for tenderness and juiciness liking. Beef flavor consumer attributes were most closely related to overall consumer liking, indicating that flavor attributes were slightly more important than tenderness and juiciness liking for consumers.

Light beef consumers preferred similar beef cuts and cooking methods as heavy beef consumers, and they preferred grilled beef tenderloin steaks.

Other findings included:

  • Light beef consumers also liked “fat-like,” “sweet,” “overall sweet and salty” sensory attributes.
  • “Beef identity,” “umami,” “brown/roasted” and “burnt” flavor attributes were related to overall consumer liking as well, but they were not as highly related.
  • Juiciness and muscle fiber tenderness attributes were closely related to consumer juiciness and tenderness liking showing that trained and consumer panelists rate these attributes similarly.
  • “Metallic” and “bloody/serumy” flavor attributes were more closely clustered with juiciness ratings indicating that treatments with higher levels of those attributes were juicier.
  • Negative descriptive flavor attributes were similar to those for heavy beef eaters.
  • Additionally, researchers found that light beef eaters rated beef flavor similarly to heavy beef eaters and that differences in juiciness and tenderness, whether evaluated by a trained or consumer panel, were similarly rated.
Studying the next generation

Consumer information from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association has indicated that millennials (ages 18 to 35) do not eat beef as frequently as non-millennials. As non-millennials are the beef consumers of the future, it was important to understand if relationships between consumer liking and beef flavor attributes are the same across those age groups. In other words, does usage (light versus heavy) or age (millennial versus non-millennial) affect how consumers perceive beef flavor, and do differences in beef flavor drive consumer acceptance similarly?

Researchers used data from the previous two studies, and they identified millennials and non-millennials that were either heavy or light beef eaters. They found that regardless of age group and usage group, consumers responded similarly to beef for beef flavor and overall liking.

Conclusion

Researchers have found that beef flavor is a strong component of overall consumer liking and that “fat-like” is the beef flavor descriptor that consistently is most highly related to overall consumer liking for both light and heavy beef eaters.

Beef flavor has a stronger relationship to overall consumer liking than juiciness and tenderness; however, juiciness and tenderness are major contributors to consumer overall liking.

Beef flavor descriptive sensory attributes from the beef flavor lexicon are related to consumer overall liking. Positive beef flavor attributes are “fat-like,” followed by “brown/roasted,” “beef identity,” “bloody/serumy,” “metallic,” “umami,” “sweet and salty” and other attributes are negatively related to consumer liking, especially “cardboard” and “liver-like.”

Millennial and non-millennials beef eaters – both light and heavy – tend to rate beef liking and beef flavor similarly. Consequently, if there are differences in beef usage between the two age groups, factors other than eating quality are driving those usage differences.

This research was supported by the Beef CheckOff. To read more about the research, click here.

– Rhonda Miller and Chris R. Kerth of Texas A&M University and Koushik Adhikari of the University of Georgia contributed to this article.

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