Contribution of lean, fat, muscle color and degree of doneness to pork and beef species flavor

Flavor is an important contributor to consumer acceptability of meat, our objective was to characterize the impact of species-specific fat/lean sources, fat level, degree of doneness and muscle color are on pork and beef flavor. Three separate experiments were conducted. Patties were formulated differently for each experiment in order to evaluate the desired variables. Experiment. 1: Flavor from combination patties (same species lean/fat or combination of species lean/fat) was not impacted by degree of doneness (66 °C vs. 71 °C). Beef flavor was highest in samples made with beef lean, regardless of species fat type. Pork flavor was highest in samples made with pork lean and had higher flavor intensity scores. Experiment. 2: Beef flavor was not increased in all-beef patties formulated with higher fat levels. Pork patties formulated with higher fat content increased pork flavor. Experiment. 3: All-beef and all-pork patties formulated with light or dark lean did not impact flavor in either species.