AMONG various food items, meat has its own individuality due to its specific amino acid proportion that ensures its excellent digestibility. Meat production is actually a sequence of chain that demands intense care at each and every step.

Its production depends upon the growth of animal which is governed by variety of factors like genetic, sex, nutrition and climatic conditions. These factors not only play with growth but also influence the nature and amount of various tissues in the carcass and, therefore, play an important role in the ultimate quantity and quality of meat.

The value of meat is ultimately judged by its degree of acceptability by the consumer. Meat quality is actually the combination of physical and chemical characteristics that determines its demand from stand point of appearance and eatability.

Characteristics of good quality meat may include its composition, texture, tenderness, juiciness, aroma and flavour. Meat palatability is generally referred to as tenderness, juiciness and flavour of a cooked product. These three cooked meat characteristics are what consumers desire and what the beef industry is trying to supply on a consistent and uniform basis.

In order to provide a strong support to beef industry, well-known measures of meat quality must be taken. In this regard, following consideration may be of vital significance.

Genetic inputs: Previous studies have documented a genetic basis for differences in beef tenderness and intramuscular fat content. Although tenderness differences between breeds have been identified, tenderness and marbling are moderately heritable traits, sire selection to improve beef palatability may be effective one.

Pre-slaughter cattle management: Management practices that alter the endocrine status of the animal are perhaps the most important pre-slaughter processes that may be controlled to influence beef tenderness and deposition of marbling.

The most widely used method of endocrine modification is castration of male cattle. Intact male cattle generally produce less tender beef than do steers because elevated serum testosterone levels, coinciding with sexual development at 8-14 month of age, are associated with a concomitant increase in intramuscular collagen content. In addition, carcasses produced by bulls have less marbling than do carcasses of steers.

Other pre-slaughter factors that have been shown to affect tenderness and deposition of intramuscular fat include the number of days the animal is fed a high-energy diet, health status of the animal during the growing and finishing periods, age at castration, temperament and ante-mortem stress, age, and relative fatness of the animal at slaughter.

Early post-mortem management: Two early post-mortem rate variables (rate of cooling and rate of post-mortem glycolysis) interact to affect beef tenderness, and both are subject to process control. Existing research information suggests that management of early post-mortem conditions requires simultaneous consideration of both cooling rate and glycolytic rate to produce desired effects on tenderness.

For example, when the cooling rate of a carcass is rapid, acceleration of glycolysis and early rigor development resulting in improved tenderness, but when carcasses are cooled slowly, accelerated glycolysis can result in appreciable toughening. Any effort to improve tenderness must be balanced with efforts to maintain and improve product safety.

Post-mortem aging: The length of the post-mortem storage interval for fresh beef cuts affects tenderness and may be considered a critical control point for ensuring product quality. The studies conducted so far showed that the rate and range of changes taking place during meat aging may be modified by using different physical (temperature, pressure, electrical stimulation), chemical (activation of proteolytic enzymes by introducing Ca ions) and biological methods (application of enzymes of microbiological, plant and animal origin).

There are a number of steps involved in the beef production from “gate to plate” or from the producers to the consumers. In order to get the maximum profit out of this business, a farmer must be aware of the technical know-how about the complete set-up of beef production. His each and every act must be consumer-oriented.

Usually a consumer demands meat which is always tender, flavourful, convenient to prepare, consistently of high and predictable quality, healthy and nutritious, ensured safe from bacteria and any other food-borne illnesses.