Both loins (M. longissimus lumborum) from 12 steers (around 2 yearsold; average carcass weight 300 kg ± 16 kg s.d.) were obtained from a local meat processing plant at 24 h post mortem, vacuum packaged, placed on ice, and transported to AgResearch Ruakura campus. On the same day, once the pH was measured, each loin was cut in half to obtain 4 loin sections and randomly assigned to four different ageing (at−1.5 °C)/freezing (at −18 °C) combinations (Fig. 1); 1) ageing for 4 weeks (A4; aged only, never-frozen control), 2) ageing for 4 weeks and then frozen for 2 weeks (A4F2), 3) ageing for 3 weeks and then frozen for 2 weeks (A3F2) and 4) frozen at 1 day post mortem and stored for 2 weeks (F2; non-aged control). Prior to freezing, the loin sections assigned for freezing, were halved (average 0.98 kg per section; approximately 7 cm × 16 cm × 8 cm (height × width × length)), vacuum packaged and assigned to either fast or slow freezing treatments.