Location: Meat Safety and Quality
Project Number: 3040-31430-007-004-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jan 1, 2026
End Date: May 1, 2026
Objective:
Determine if instrument measures of lean color can be used to more accurately assign Official U.S. Quality Grades and facilitate more accurate price discovery for beef.
Approach:
This study will be conducted according to USDA-AMS instrument approval procedures for use of color traits in assignment of U.S. Quality Grades based on the previous instrument approval protocol for marbling (Moore et al., 2010). This protocol will be guided by Dr. Derek Vote but will be carried out by the collaborating scientists. Scientists at CSU and USDA-ARS-USMARC, in cooperation with USDA-AMS personnel and instrument manufacturers, will capture carcass grading data (by three expert USDA Grading staff), and instrument ribeye imaging data. Approximately 250 carcasses per plant (six plants; N = 1,500) will be selected over three days at each facility. In each beef facility, carcasses will be identified on the grading stand as meeting one of the color/marbling criteria for that plant, tagged with a consecutive number, and railed off to a stationary rail for data collection. All three instruments will collect images and the order will be rotated to avoid any bias. The three USDA AMS graders will independently collect all needed carcass grade traits. CSU/USMARC scientists will collect ribeye temperature, colorimeter data (L*, a*, b*) and a thin cross-section slice from the anterior strip loin for subsequent pH and myoglobin measurement.