The latest addition to the ICBF presentations page is a presentation on Meat quality. What is the future and why is it important? put together by Stephen Conroy, Andrew Cromie & Thierry Pabiou.
This presentation was presented by Dr. Stephen Conroy at the 2017 British Cattle Breeders’ Conference (BCBC) which took place in the UK earlier this year. Since its foundation some sixty eight years ago, the BCBC has become a unique event, renowned for its mix of practical, high quality speakers.
Meat quality is becoming more important as consumers worldwide are increasingly demanding consistently higher quality meat. ICBF are currently conducting a meat eating quality study to see if this is something that can be included in the Euro-Star index. At present there are over 1,500 animals finished in the Tully test centre with MEQ (Meat Eating Quality) phenotypes collected. This data was collected from animals finished in the Tully test centre from 09/2013 to present. This data was then corrected for breed composition (AA, BB, FR, HE, HO, LM, SA & SI). An analysis of 5 star and 1 star animals was carried out on 1000 bulls (see image below) 
Consumer Validation
Meat samples were tested on 101 consumers at BEEF 2016. Consumers were given two steak samples, one from a high index animal (5 Star) and one from a low index animal (1 Star). Consumers were asked to identify high eating quality index beef. 75% of consumers correctly identified the high index eating quality beef.
For more information on Meat Eating Quality check out this presentation given by ICBF’s Stephen Conroy at the British Cattle Breeders Conference January 2017.
