Assessing marbling scores of beef at the 10th rib vs. 12th rib of longissimus thoracis in the slaughter line using camera grading technology in Germany.

Internationally, different Video Image Analysis Systems (VIAS) are established to enable categorization of beef carcasses according to a marbling score as determining part of trading categories. Different established standardized cutting positions of longissimus thoracis, among other reasons, hamper the use of VIAS in European countries. The objective of the study was to explore the potential of a VIAS-based grading system VBG 2000 for the estimation of marbling of carcasses cut according to German standards. The correlation coefficient between the camera assessed marbling scores (n = 354 halves of carcasses) at the 10th rib section at the left and right side achieved 0.89 (P < .01) and 0.80 (P < .01) for camera assessed marbling scores between the right 12th/13th and 10th/11th rib interface of longissmus thoracis. Thus, modification of the cut position towards the US standard provides comparable results, and assessing VIA based marbling scores at the 10th rib is correlated to the 12th rib.