M E AT P E R S P E C T I V E S BEEF INSTRUMENT GRADING Lessons learned from the recent National Beef Quality Audit BY K E R R I G E H R I N G a n d J E FFR E Y SAV E L L | m e a t p o u l t r y @ s o s l a n d.c o m T he National Beef Quality Audits, conducted on behalf of The Beef Checkoff by a collaborative research team, have been conducted about every five years since 1991. The past two audits collected information from the camera-grading instruments used by packers, and the most recent audit included data from over 4.5 million carcasses that were evaluated during 2016. Never has so much information on carcass characteristics been made available to those interested in the quality and yield aspects of beef. Kerri Gehring is the president/CEO of the International HACCP Alliance and is a professor in the Dept. of Animal Science at Texas A&M Univ. Jeff Savell is University Distinguished Professor, Regents Professor, and E.M. "Manny" Rosenthal Chairholder in the Dept. of Animal Science at Texas A&M Univ. 50 MEAT+ POULTRY | 12.18 | www.meatpoultry.com US beef packing plants began implementing instrument grading in the early part of the 21st century. Some plants use the technology to officially grade beef carcasses. Other plants collect camera grading information, but official grades are still assigned by US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) meat graders. Regardless of the scenario, the availability of data about beef collected by these systems provides a unique opportunity to learn more about beef. MAN VERSUS MACHINE One of the most frequently asked questions about instrument grading of beef is how it compares to the traditional information determined by USDA graders. We are pleased to report that information gathered by the USDA grading supervisors during the in-plant phase of the audit was very close to that from the instrument assessment. What may be the most incredible part of this comparison is that marbling scores were virtually identical betweenhttp://www.meatpoultry.com