Intrinsic Quality Factors: Carcass Quality Grading Systems

Abstract

The history of red meat production across the globe has focused on marshaling available resources to produce cattle, sheep, goats, camels, yak, or other ruminant animal without too much regard to the end user of the total process of red meat production. Therefore, a food purveyor was confronted with an array of wholesale raw products at the marketplace of which only some would be acceptable to his/her market. Thus, a discontinuity in the production chain occurred with animals being produced on one side and meat being served to consumers on the other side. So, classifications were developed to aid in sorting the array of products at the fulcrum of the process, the meat packer (where animals became meat). This chapter describes the classification systems employed in the world that have attempted to sort these raw wholesale products according to their value to the end user. This chapter also presents the research delineating the relative successes of the various systems used in the world. Red Meat Science and Production takes a different perspective of the production, delivery system than this historic method. That is, the orientation is to understand the consumer’s desires for red meat; translate those desires into red meat specifications; then understand control points in the production, delivery system sensitive to the character of these specifications; and then orchestrate the production, delivery system to consistently deliver the desired products to the targeted consumer. Although Red Meat Science and Production takes a different approach to the historical approach, it is necessary to understand the methods commonly used to characterize red meat in order to develop the new approach. Thus, this chapter provides a “springboard” for launching different approaches to red meat science and production.