Fig. 1. Details of image analysis to calculate the characteristics of marbling fleck.

Digital color image (A) of the longissimus thoracis muscle cross-section was binarized into muscle and marbling flecks (B) using the image analysis program. The binarized image was separated into two images of bigger (C) and smaller (D) marbling flecks. The fineness was calculated from the number of smaller marbling flecks (0.01 to 0.5 cm²) per loin-eye area, and the coarseness was calculated by division of the total area of bigger marbling flecks (above 0.5 cm²) by the total marbling area measured.