Visual judgements of quality in meat II. A simplification of the assessment of the proportion of lean to fat in bacon

Abstract

1. The visual judgement of bacon quality called the ‘proportion of lean to fat’ has been simplified by breaking down the overall assessment of the surface seen on the cut bacon side at the last rib into four simpler scores—of the ‘eye’-muscle size and shape, the amount and distribution of fat on the back rasher, the streak thickness and the proportion of lean to fat in the streak, each judged on a 10-point scale. An experiment is described in which eight experienced judges attempted to score these new characteristics in conjunction with the overall assessment.2. The judging standard adopted in the overall assessment of the proportion of lean to fat varied less from batch to batch in this experiment (in which the seven batches were arrayed in fixed positions and assessed in one day) than in an earlier experiment (when the examples seen in each batch could be shuffled and the eleven batches were seen several days apart). The ranking of judges according to their discrimination and repeatability for the overall assessment was also changed in the second experiment.