What are the drivers of beef sensory quality using metadata of intramuscular connective tissue, fatty acids and muscle fiber characteristics?

The aim of this integrative study was to investigate the relationships between biochemical traits (total, insoluble and soluble collagens (TCol, ICol, SCol), cross-links (CLs), proteoglycans (TPGs), proportion of fiber types, total lipids (TLips), main fatty acids (FAs) families, the n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated FA (n-6/n-3PUFA) ratio and the sensory attributes scores (tenderness, juiciness, flavor) of two muscles from beef: Rectus abdominis (RA) and Longissimus thoracis (LT). For robust analysis, a database was prepared using samples from three studies from animals raised under different production systems. The analyses were performed either on each study separately or on pooled data per muscle after removing as many experimental effects as possible in each study. The CLs (across the muscles and studies) and, to a lower extent, type IIA muscle fibers (mainly for RA muscles), saturated FAs (SFAs), monounsaturated FAs (MUFAs) (for the LT muscles) were the components the most frequently associated with tenderness. The CLs, type IIA muscle fibers (mainly for the RA muscles), TLips, SFAS, MUFAs, conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) and n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio (mainly for the LT muscles) were the components the most associated with juiciness. The TLips and CLAs (across the muscles and studies), SFAS, MUFAs (mainly for the LT muscles), CLs (mainly for the RA muscles) and TPGs (mainly for the LT muscles) were the components the most associated with flavor liking. The CLs, CLAs, TLips, SFAS, MUFAs, n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio, type IIA and I muscle fibers were the components the most frequently associated with the 3 sensory scores taken together. The SCol, TPGs and type IIX + B muscle fibers were little associated with the sensory scores taken together. The TCol, ICol and PUFAs were components the least associated with sensory scores. The data of this integrative study highlighted for the first time that the CLs were negatively involved in the determination of the three sensory traits mainly in the RA muscle. The muscle fibers in this integrative study had a weak impact on the variations in beef sensory traits. The type IIA and IIX + B muscle fibers were respectively negatively and positively associated with tenderness, negatively associated with juiciness and flavor. The type I muscle fibers were overall positively associated with juiciness and flavor and negatively or positively with tenderness and these associations were muscle and study-dependent. Overall, the TLips and FAs were positively associated with the sensory scores and the n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio was negatively associated with them.