A New Technique for Objective Evaluation of Marbling in Beef

The recently developed technique for objective evaluation of marbling using automatic image analysis which is described here makes it possible to measure image analysis parameters which represent essential characteristics of the intramuscular fat deposits in meat. This permits detailed comparisons of different samples which provide much more information than the marbling points which have previously been established subjectively or the fat content determined by chemical means. As an initial area of application, this technique was used to investigate the intramuscular fat deposits in samples of beef from different breeds of cattle.