Table 3.
Means and standard errors of slaughter age and carcass characteristics of Korean cattle steers with different quality grades examined by an official meat grader
| Item | Korean quality grade | SEM | p-value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||
| 1++ | 1+ | 1 | 2 | |||
| Slaughtering age (month) | 32.4a | 32.3a | 33.5a | 30.2b | 0.36 | 0.01 |
| Carcass weight (kg) | 441a | 397b | 429ab | 402b | 6.45 | 0.05 |
| LM area (cm2) | 95.2a | 83.3bc | 88.3b | 81.2c | 1.38 | 0.01 |
| Fat thickness (mm) | 14.7a | 14.6a | 15.6a | 10.4b | 0.79 | 0.03 |
| Marbling score1 | 8.42a | 6.17b | 4.50c | 2.58d | 0.32 | <0.01 |
| Yield index | 64.0 | 63.6 | 62.9 | 65.8 | 0.53 | 0.09 |
| Yield grade2 | 19.2 | 18.3 | 15.8 | 21.7 | 1.06 | 0.06 |
| Meat color3 | 4.50 | 4.33 | 4.42 | 4.67 | 0.07 | 0.50 |
| Fat color4 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 0.00 | - |
| Texture5 | 1.00b | 1.00b | 1.00b | 2.00a | 0.06 | <0.01 |
| Maturity6 | 2.00 | 2.08 | 2.25 | 2.00 | 0.04 | 0.06 |
n = 12.
SEM, standard error of the means.
1
Marbling score: 1, devoid; 9, very abundant.
2
Yield grade: A, 30; B, 20; C, 10.
3
Meat color: 1, bright red; 7, dark red.
4
Fat color: 1, white; 7 yellowish.
5
Texture: 1, very fine; 3, very coarse.
6
Maturity: 1, youthful; 9, mature.
a–d
Means with different letter within a same row differ at p<0.05.