The overall effect of treatment differed significantly for all attributes, i.e. tenderness, juiciness and meat flavour (P=0.001). With increased ageing time, vacuum packaged steaks became more tender but steaks with ageing time in MAP did not. According to the sensory panel, vacuum packaged meat was perceived as more tender than the MAP steaks at both day 5 (5. 9 vs. 5.3; P=0.001; S.E.=0.20) and day 15 (6.5 vs. 5.4; P=0.001; S.E.=0.20) (Fig. 1). However, MAP
steaks were more tender than day 0 samples (V0M0). Vacuum packaged steaks were perceived juicier compared with MAP steaks at both 5 and 15 days (5.9 vs. 5.3; P=0.001 and 5.6 vs. 4.7; P=0.001; S.E.=0.16). MAP steaks at day 15 (V5M10) had reduced juiciness compared with day 0 steaks (V0M0). There was a development of