Who Will Pay for Guaranteed Tender Steak?

Meat tenderness is one of the most important quality characteristics to beef consumers. Current beef quality grading standards are poorly correlated with meat tenderness. Even within the same quality grade, steak tenderness varies considerably. As a result of consumers frequently experiencing poor steak eating experiences, their confidence in, and demand for beef has been adversely affected. A new quality grading system, developed by USDA, more accurately segregates beef into tenderness categories. This study evaluates consumer willingness to pay for steak tenderness in an effort to evaluate this new grading system. Consumers demonstrated a preference for tender steak. Blind steak tests revealed that 72% of consumers preferred tender steak relative to tough steak (as measured via Warner-Bratzler shear force tests) in terms of tenderness preferences. In these blind taste tests, 36% of consumers were also willing to pay an average of a $1.23/lb. Premium for a tender relative to a tough steak. When information regarding tenderness was revealed to consumers together with a taste sample, 90% preferred the tender steak. Overall, 51% of consumers were willing to pay an average premium of $1.84/lb. for a tender relative to a tough steak when the level of steak tenderness was revealed to consumers.