Understanding Consumer Perceptions of Meat Quality

Consumer perceptions of meat quality play a pivotal role in shaping purchasing decisions and consumption patterns. Sensory studies serve as a cornerstone for evaluating the quality of meat and its products, offering insights into consumer preferences. Among the myriad factors influencing these preferences, color/appearance and texture stand out prominently, while flavor, encompassing taste and smell, plays a complementary role.

Texture, a crucial aspect of meat quality, can be dissected into dimensions such as juiciness and tenderness. These elements contribute significantly to the overall textural experience, influencing consumer satisfaction and enjoyment. Similarly, flavor, though often overshadowed by texture and appearance, remains integral. The interplay between taste and smell dictates the palatability of meat, thereby shaping consumer perceptions.

However, consumer perceptions extend beyond mere sensory experiences. Numerous surveys across different countries underscore the multifaceted nature of consumer preferences. Beyond eating quality, consumers express concerns about product safety, animal welfare, and ecological production methods. The presence of residues or additives like hormones and antibiotics used in animal production further influences consumer choices, reflecting a growing emphasis on holistic quality attributes.

Understanding consumer behavior necessitates a nuanced approach, with two primary methodologies emerging: the consumer studies/marketing approach and the microeconomic approach. The former delves into various models to capture diverse aspects of consumer attitudes and behavior. Among these, the means-end chain theory stands out, emphasizing the connection between perceived quality and individual consumer goals.

Central to this approach is the notion that consumers select products based on their perceived ability to fulfill desired ends. Consequently, consumer preferences are intricately linked to personal objectives and aspirations. By unraveling this complex web of associations, marketers and researchers gain valuable insights into consumer decision-making processes.

In conclusion, consumer perceptions of meat quality transcend mere sensory experiences, encompassing a spectrum of attributes ranging from safety to sustainability. Understanding these multifaceted preferences requires a nuanced approach, blending sensory studies with insights from consumer behavior models. By doing so, stakeholders can adapt strategies to meet evolving consumer demands while ensuring the continued satisfaction of meat enthusiasts worldwide.
Understanding Consumer Perceptions of Meat Quality

Sensory study in meat

Sensory study is a scientific method employed to evaluate consumer products based on how they are perceived through the senses of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing.

The sensory experience and characteristics of a product play a crucial role in determining food choice, consumption, and whether consumers will become repeat buyers. If a food item possesses an unpleasant smell, unappealing appearance, or distasteful flavor, it is likely to be rejected by consumers.

For centuries, this type of analysis has been utilized to accept or reject food products. Historically, it has been considered a complementary methodology to assess food quality in conjunction with technological and microbiological safety evaluations.

One advantage of sensory evaluation is its ability to directly quantify how people perceive various attributes of meat. It can also uncover individual preferences. However, this approach does have certain drawbacks, including being time-consuming, expensive, and subject to significant variation between different individuals and even within the same person. Additionally, human judgments can be influenced by irrelevant factors. Three major attributes contributing to the sensory perception of meat quality are tenderness (or texture), juiciness, and flavor.

Meat tenderness is a complex characteristic influenced by several structural and metabolic factors, such as connective tissue concentration, final pH, muscle contraction during rigor mortis, and, notably, the activity of proteolytic enzymes, calpains, and cathepsins.

Recognized as the most critical quality trait for consumer acceptability of fresh meat, meat tenderness strongly influences consumer satisfaction and, in turn, repeat purchases.

Meat juiciness is typically evaluated through sensory assessment, and its definition may vary among studies. It can refer to the overall perception of moisture in the mouth during chewing (referred to as sustained juiciness), where saliva formation might play a role. Alternatively, juiciness can describe the amount of moisture released from the food after the initial few chews.

Regarding meat flavor from a sensory perspective, it involves the aroma perceived through the olfactory senses before consumption, the flavor aroma sensed during chewing, and the basic tastes of sweet, sour, bitter, and salty detected by taste receptors on the tongue.
Sensory study in meat

Meat quality perception: Flavour

The flavour of a food is one of the principal factors involved in a consumer’s purchase decision; meat is no exception. Raw meat contains very little aroma. Raw meat aroma can be described as bloodlike or one that has a serumy taste.

Meat flavour derives from the combinations of taste sensations as well as other sensations that are influenced by consumer food perception, such as colour, mouthfeel, juiciness, texture, and aroma.

Flavour may be regarded as consisting of taste and smell. However, eating or sensory quality is only one dimension of consumer perceived quality.

Cooked meat flavour is the result of chemical reactions that occur within and between the lipid and lean portions of meat during cooking.

The aroma flavour characteristics of cooked meats are derived from volatile flavour components which derive from thermally induced reactions occurring during heating via the four pathways including
(1) Maillard reaction of amino acid or peptides with reducing sugars,
(2) Lipid oxidation,
(3) interaction between Maillard reaction products with lipid oxidized products and
(4) vitamin degradation during cooking.

The Maillard reaction helps to explain carbonyl and amine reactions. Normally, meat cooked at a high temperature shows browning because when a free amino acid links with a carbonyl group forming glycosylamine, and when the latter is dehydrated and rearranged, it produces furanone derivatives, furfural, dicarbonyl compounds, and hydroxyketones. These compounds add flavor to meat.
Meat quality perception: Flavour

Beef meat flavor

The flavors and aromas associated with beef are generally those that develop during heating. When water-soluble substances derived from precursor compounds dissolve in the saliva, they bind to the taste buds and stimulate a response that is perceived in the brain.

Meat flavour forms during cooking, as a result of the Maillard reaction and lipid oxidation. The Maillard reaction was first identified by the French scientist Louis-Camille Maillard, a little over a century ago, and it occurs between amino acids and sugars at high temperatures.

Studies showed that fat may affect flavor in two ways:
*Fatty acids, on oxidation, can produce carbonyl compounds that are potent flavor contributors, and
*fat may act as a storage depot for odoriferous compounds that are released on heating.

Volatile compounds released from fat or produced from triglyceride or phospholipid fractions may be responsible for the species-specific flavors.

A wide array of flavor-active volatiles occurs in beef (acids, alcohols, aldehydes, aromatic compounds, esters, ethers, furans, hydrocarbons, ketones, lactones, pyrazines, pyridines, pyrroles, sulfides, thiazoles, thiophenes).

Beef meat flavor