You can’t beat a juicy, tender steak. But consistent tenderness is one of the largest product quality challenges in the beef industry.

“If beef is consistently tender, consumers will eat more beef and pay more for it,” says Mike McMorris, Executive Director of the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association. “For example, products labeled ‘Guaranteed Tender’ beef could open up new marketing opportunities for Ontario beef.”

Beef tenderness is determined by good genetics, animal nutrition, carcass handling and the process that’s used to produce beef products. What beef researchers at the University of Guelph needed was a new, faster method for measuring tenderness in the numerous beef samples they collect in research trials. This would lower labour costs and speed up results. And so the researchers set to work to develop a state-of-the-art facility to more quickly measure beef tenderness.

Completed in January 2004, the new facility features a specialized grill and a ‘slice shear force unit’. The grill cooks steaks rapidly and precisely in large volumes. It can cook a 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick steak to medium well doneness in about five minutes. The ‘slice shear force unit’ slices the cooked steaks across the muscle fibers. The amount of force that is required to slice across the muscle fibers, or ‘shear’ is measured by a sensitive scientific instrument connected to a computer that stores the results for analysis. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes.

“This ‘slice shear’ technique is more than 10 times faster than the previous method for determining tenderness which was much more labour intensive,” said University of Guelph researcher, Dr. Stephen Miller.

Meat from cattle raised at the University of Guelph was used for the research study. A trained panel compared steak samples that were tested for tenderness using the two methods. The results showed that the new, faster, ‘slice shear’ technique is as reliable as the previous Warner Bratzler method.

With this new facility at the University of Guelph, researchers can conduct more studies to improve beef tenderness. New innovations resulting from the research facility are leading to important genetic, nutritional and meat technology advancements for the Ontario beef industry. A recent example is a genetic marker discovered to have a significant effect on meat tenderness.

A database with research findings on beef tenderness will be made available by the University of Guelph over the internet. This will provide the research community with greater access to the information and will allow researchers in remote locations to upload and download data.

“The ‘slice shear’ technology and data exchange system will enable researchers to work with the Ontario beef industry to identify sires that will produce tender beef,” said McMorris. “It will also enable cow-calf producers and feedlot operators to use select genetics that optimize growth performance, carcass leanness, cutability and tenderness. By not having to produce a highly marbled animal, producers could cut feeding costs without affecting beef quality.”

McMorris says if this technology is used in packing plants, it could objectively measure beef tenderness rather than the current system that predicts tenderness from marbling, which is a poor indicator of tenderness. Conversely, the packing industry could identify tougher carcasses that should go for further processing.

Ontario beef products branded as ‘Guaranteed Tender’ may not be far off. This technology could result in a branded product process from breeding through to processing that results in a guaranteed tender beef product. That’s good news for consumers. For Ontario producers, a branded beef product could create new markets and maintain access to existing markets.

“This research project is another fine example of Ontario’s agricultural and scientific communities working together to benefit the agri-food industry and the economy of the province,” said Ontario Agricultural Commodity Council Secretary, Graeme Hedley.

“This was a unique funding opportunity that is allowing beef research to significantly leap ahead in the next decade,” said Bob Bedggood, Chair of the Agricultural Adaptation Council.

The $129,000 project was funded by the Canada-Ontario Research & Development (C-ORD) Program, the OCA, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Innovation Trust.

Now completed, the C-ORD Program was initiated in 1996 to improve the competitiveness of Ontario’s agri-food sector and increase its diversity and self-reliance through applied research and development.

The C-ORD Program is funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food through an Agricultural Safety Net provision for research.

The Agricultural Adaptation Council is a non-profit coalition of 58 Ontario agricultural, agri-food and rural organizations that administers the C-ORD program on behalf of the Ontario Agricultural Commodity Council.

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For more information contact:

Nadine Buitenhuis
Communications Coordinator
Agricultural Adaptation Council
Phone: 519-822-7554
Fax: 519-822-6248
e-mail: Nadine's e-mail