Juiciness — its importance and some contributing factors

Meat juiciness is an important contributor to eating quality and also plays a key role in meat texture (Szczesniak, 1963; Jowitt, 1974; Dransfield et al., 1984a; Hutchings and Lillford, 1988), contributing between 10% and 40% to its variability. Unlike other key aspects of texture, juiciness remains a uniquely subjective property. The relationship between ‘subjective’ juiciness of meat and any objective measurement remains elusive and poorly understood (Hamm, 1960).