The carcass length of the left cold carcass was measured and it was ribbed between the
12th and 13th ribs to evaluate the rib eye area (REA) and back fat thickness (BFT).
The 9th–11th rib sectionwas removed according to for physical separation of bone, fat and lean tissues to estimate carcass physical composition.
Longissimus muscles were sampled between
the 10th–12th ribs from the left side of each carcass.
Longissimus sampleswere
vacuum-packaged, frozen and stored at−20 °C until analysis.