Despite the prestige of Prime beef, the current consensus among meat scientists is that fat marbling accounts for no more than a third of the variation in the overall tender-ness, juiciness, and flavor of cooked beef. The other important factors include breed,exercise and feed, animal age, conditions during slaughter, extent of post-slaughteraging (p. 143), and storage conditions before sale. Most of these are impossible for the consumer to evaluate, though there is a movement toward store and producer “brands” that may provide greater information about and consistency of production. Potentially more flavorful beef from older animals can be recognized by its darker color and coarser muscle fibers.