Shear force was determined at 2 days and 6 weeks
post mortem because this re¯ects the time the meat may
enter the domestic and overseas markets, respectively.
At 2 days post mortema large variation in shear force was
observed ranging from 4.1 to 19.4 kgF. This variation was
observed regardless of the treatments with dierences
between the lowest and highest shear forces ranging
between 11.3 and 14.4 kgF. Clearly, marketing this meat
at 2 days post mortem would have resulted in a product
with a large inconsistency in tenderness. Six weeks of
post mortem storage resulted in a uniformly tender
product with shear forces ranging from 1.5 to 5.3 kgF.