Sensory evaluation of beef and buffalo extensively reared and its relationship to sociodemographic characteristics of consumers

Sensory characteristics of meat from different animal types, including cattle (Angus and Brangus) and buffalo raised at pasture, and information on socio-demographic determinants of consumer preference were evaluated. Samples of roasted rib eye were cut and served in a disordered and monadic manner to 188 untrained tasters. A nine-point hedonic scale was used to assess odor, color, tenderness, succulence and overall appearance. Analysis of variance was carried out using the GLM procedure of SAS (R), considering animal type and socio-demographic characteristics as fixed effects and using the LSMEANS procedure for multiple mean comparisons. Differences (P<0.001) between animal types were observed only for tenderness, with Brangus (7.02) and buffalo (6.82) meat being superior to Angus (6.25). Regardless of meat origin, age, income, smoking and place of purchase affected the perceived attributes (P<0.05). People aged over 50 years gave higher mean scores for odor and color (P<0.05), indicative of greater satisfaction and less demanding tastes when compared to other age categories. Despite the variability in the intrinsic characteristics, differentiation of meat by the consumer is not easy to determine, with little impact of sociodemographic characteristics on organoleptic perception. Meat from Brangus cattle and buffaloes raised at pasture was considered tenderer than that from Angus cattle raised under the same conditions by an untrained taste panel compared with.