Sensory evaluation and its relationship to physical meat quality attributes of beef from Nguni and Bonsmara steers raised on natural pasture

The current study compared sensory characteristics and their relationships with physical meat characteristics of beef from Nguni and Bonsmara steers. Nguni beef was more (P < 0.05) tender than Bonsmara beef after ageing for 2 and 21 days, and had higher (P < 0.05) intramuscular fat (IMF; 1.12%) than Bonsmara beef (1.07%). Nguni beef had higher (P < 0.05) sensory scores than Bonsmara beef after ageing for 2 days. There were no (P > 0.05) relationships between IMF and sensory characteristics. Aroma intensity, impression on juiciness and tenderness-related scores were affected (P < 0.05) by pH. There were significant (P < 0.05) correlations between most physical meat characteristics and sensory characteristics. Nguni beef had better sensory scores than Bonsmara beef for beef aged for 2 days. While most physical meat characteristics were correlated to sensory scores, all sensory scores were not significantly correlated to IMF.