Product Enhancement Research
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White Papers
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| Preserving Beef Quality with Natural Antioxidants* |
Discusses the use of antioxidants to produce high-quality, pre-cooked beef products.
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| Round Muscle Profiling and Tenderness Markers in Beef* |
Summarizes the research that identifies expanded uses for selected muscles in the round. |
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| Beef from Market Cows* |
Summarizes the research on culled cows and methods for improving carcass red-meat and fat yields as well as the overall quality and palatability attributes of market-cow beef. |
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Books, etc.
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| Beef Merchandising Video |
Showcases merchandising strategies for numerous beef cuts. This DVD provides cutting instruction and merchandising solutions for new and traditional cuts from each of the beef subprimals and provides background on critical topics like grading and tenderness. |
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| Beef Marbling Photographs with Pouch |
Full color, 9" x 6" photographs showing moderately abundant marbling (average Prime), slightly abundant marbling (low Prime), moderate marbling (upper 1/3 Choice), modest marbling (upper 2/3 Choice), small marbling (low Choice) and slight marbling (Select). Enclosed in a 61/2" x 10" black zippered pouch, with marbling texture chart. |
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| Beef Steak Color Guide |
The Beef Steak Color Guide provides printed color comparisons and cooking temperatures for six degrees of doneness for beef steak—very rare, rare, medium rare, medium, well done and very well done. |
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| The Guide to Identifying Meat Cuts |
The Guide provides information, cooking recommendations and identifying photos for all cuts of beef, veal, pork and lamb. The 2009 updated edition of the Guide includes URMIS numbers for all cuts and identifies those cuts that meet government guidelines for lean. |
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| Bovine Myology and Muscle Profiling Book |
This program provides information about research that profiles the physical and chemical characteristics of beef muscles, thereby aiding processors in the development and preparation of new products based on the inherent properties of each muscle. |
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| Market Cow Muscle Profiling Book |
This book provides information about research that profiles the physical and chemical characteristics of market cow beef muscles, thereby aiding processors in the development and preparation of new products based on the inherent properties of each muscle. |
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Executive Summaries
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Pre-Harvest Cattle Management Practices for
Enhancing Beef Tenderness |
Industry innovation makes it possible to manage product attributes across the entire beef chain. Tenderness is a key determinant of eating satisfaction. This executive summary analyzes several different pre-harvest factors that can be managed to enhance tenderness characteristics. |
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| Pre-Harvest Factors Affecting Beef Tenderness in Heifers |
Existing research suggests that beef produced by heifers is more likely to be tough compared to beef from steers. This executive summary explains the differences and provides tips for heifer management to minimize tenderness problems. |
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Post-Harvest Practices for Enhancing Beef
Tenderness |
Along with flavor, tenderness is the factor consumers rate essential to the beef-eating experience. In this executive summary, authors analyze the science behind beef tenderness and describe each of the fifteen post-harvest practices proposed to enhance beef tenderness. |
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| Industry Guide for Beef Aging |
This guide is a summary of a checkoff-funded study that determined optimal aging time to enhance tenderness for individual muscles of different USDA Quality Grades. Recently published, an Addendum to the Guide provides data for four key muscles from the round. With this addition, all relevant muscles from the round are covered. |
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| Dry Aging of Beef |
This executive summary describes dry aging and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the process. Special attention is given to quality, palatability, and economic parameters important to those who market and purchase dry-aged beef. |
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| The Chemistry of Beef Flavor |
Of all sensory traits, flavor and tenderness are most important for affecting consumer acceptance of beef. This executive summary examines how a wide array of volatile compounds make up beef flavor. |
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| The History of Instrument Assessment of Beef |
This executive summary reviews the thirty-year history and evolution of instrumentation as a means for assessing beef carcass traits in the United States. A graphic timeline of the history and a description of the various instrumentation approaches are included. |
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| Carcass Merit Project: Finding Live Animal Traits for Better Beef |
Summarizes the results of this project which identified genetic selection tools for tenderness. |
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| 2005 National Beef Market Basket Survey* |
Compares the overall fat thickness for individual retail cuts to the cut options listed in USDA’s Nutrient Database for Standard Reference in order to assess needed revisions to ensure the database reflects the actual meat cuts available in the marketplace. |
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| 2005 National Beef Tenderness Survey* |
Provides the results of the 2005 tenderness survey in comparison to findings from similar surveys in 1990 and 1999. |
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| 1999 National Beef Tenderness Survey |
Provides the results of the 1999 tenderness survey in comparison to findings from similar surveys in 1990 and 1995. Provides a benchmark for beef tenderness derived from retail and foodservice samples taken from outlets across the country. |
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| National Beef Instrument Assessment Plan III Meeting Summary* |
Addresses the challenges associated with instrument assessment and describes research and implementation strategies for beef instrumentation technology the 5 years following the 2007 meeting. |
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| National Beef Instrument Assessment Plan II Meeting Summary |
Examines challenges associated with instrument assessment of beef tenderness and outlines strategies to address the many questions/issues discussed during this 2002 industry meeting. |
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| Non-Conforming Beef Research Summit* |
Summarizes the research needs to address non-conforming beef, which is beef from the cattle, carcasses, and cuts missing the broad marketplace targets costing millions of dollars in lost revenue each year. |
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| Ethanol Co-Products Summit* |
From a meeting in November 2006, summarizes the research regarding ethanol co-products in cattle diets and identifies research needed to fully assess the impact of co-products on the industry. |
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| Ethanol Co-Product Research* |
Summarizes six research projects to determine the impact of feeding high levels of ethanol co-products. Funded by The Beef Checkoff as a result of the November 2006 Ethanol Co-Products . |
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| Beef Customer Satisfaction II: The Value of Tender Beef |
Summarizes the results of a 1997-1998 study designed to determine the potential for tenderness to enhance overall customer satisfaction with beef. |
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| Beef Customer Satisfaction II: The Marketplace and Beyond |
Summarizes the results of a follow-up study to the checkoff-funded “Beef Consumer Satisfaction Study” with the goal of answering several questions about the consumer beef marketplace. |
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Fact Sheets
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| Beef Shelf-life* |
Discusses all aspects of beef shelf-life in relation to different packaging types. |
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| Mechanical Tenderization of Beef* |
Describes different types of mechanical tenderization and when they should be used. |
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| Slice Sheer Force* |
Describes slice shear force as a system for predicting beef tenderness and compares its attributes to Warner-Bratzler shear force. |
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| Beef Packaging* |
Describes the multiple factors affecting fresh beef packaging and the types of packages currently available in the marketplace. |
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| Marination of Beef for Enhancement* |
Describes the latest techniques, equipment and terminology used in processes of marination to improve product quality and consumer satisfaction. |
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| Ranking of Beef Muscles for Tenderness* |
Provides a compilation of 60 years of tenderness and sensory research and a ranking of beef muscles based on Warner-Bratzler shear force and sensory panel evaluations of tenderness, juiciness, and beef flavor. |
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| Adding Enzymes to Improve Beef Tenderness* |
Discusses different enzyme treatments to enhance tenderness and other factors, such as raw material, holding time and temperature which may also impact enzyme effectiveness. |
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| Beef Cutout Calculator* |
Explains the Beef Cutout Calculator which provides an in-depth view of carcass composition and value. |
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| Color Changes in Cooked Beef* |
Discusses the three non-typical color changes occasionally observed in cooked beef, premature browning, persistent pink and color reversion, which make color an unreliable determinant of product doneness. |
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| Understanding the Different Kinds of Beef in the Marketplace |
Discusses the production and marketing distinctions among conventional, natural, grass-finished and organic beef. |
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| Beef Grading Quality & Yield* |
Explains both quality- and yield-grade standards established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture designed to facilitate beef marketing for both the producer and the packer. |
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| Iridescence: A rainbow of colors, causes and concerns* |
Summarizes the mechanism involved in, and the factors affecting, the physical phenomenon of iridescence, an attribute consumers often associate with unwholesomeness. |
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| Dark, Firm and Dry Beef* |
Examines the causes and surrounding issues of dark, firm and dry (DFD) beef with appropriate management recommendations to decrease the incidences of DFD carcasses. |
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| Does Vitamin D3 Improve Beef Tenderness? |
Discusses the processes by which Vitamin D3 supplementation the week prior to harvest can improve beef tenderness ratings while not creating any safety issues with product residues. |
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| Fresh Beef Marketing Opportunities due to Dietary Vitamin E* |
Discusses the current understanding of the role of Vitamin E in maintaining the stability of the desirable bright red color of fresh beef. |
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