Marbling Red Meat

The presence of marbling has an extremely positive effect on the eating quality of beef in terms of tenderness juiciness moisture and flavour.

Marbling red meat. Marbling intramuscular fat is the intermingling or dispersion of fat within the lean. The actual percentage is measured by evaluating the ribeye. This is fairly intuitive since you can imagine how difficult it would be to get fat by eating grass. Graders evaluate the amount and distribution of marbling in the ribeye muscle at the cut surface after the carcass has been ribbed between the 12th and 13th ribs.

Marbled meat is meat especially red meat that contains various amounts of intramuscular fat giving it an appearance similar to marble. While every country has their own grading scale which include various factors imf is a top consideration in all methods. Marbling affects meat s juiciness tenderness texture and flavor attributes that determine eating experience. The fat in lean muscle creates a marble pattern hence the name.

The fat makes the meat softer and easier to chew as there is simply less muscle fibre and collagen per unit volume of meat. Marbling is fat so it is largely determined by the diet of the animal and to a certain degree the breed of cattle. It is a critical factor in grading beef in the usa japan and around the world. Degree of marbling is the primary determination of quality grade.