A total of 40 double-muscled Belgian Blue young bulls with an
average age and carcass weight at slaughter of 21.6±2.7 months
and 502.4±42.2 kg respectively were used. Animals originated
from 16 different farms and were slaughtered in 4 commercial abattoirs
on 5 days. Animals were slaughtered and cooled according to
common practices, i.e. stunned by captive bolt, shackled and bled
immediately, dehided, eviscerated, split and sent to a conventional
chilling room after approximately 1 hour