Classification of Red Meat.
Conformation of carcasses has all to do with the visual observation of every carcass.
There are 5 different codes for conformation, namely –
• Code 1 – a very flat carcass with mostly bone and very little muscle (meat)
• Code 2 – a flat carcass with a lot of bone and very little more muscle (meat)
• Code 3 – a medium carcass, which means that the % of bone will be between 15% and 20% of the total carcass mass, the rest will be muscle (meat)
• Code 4 – a round carcass, which have between 12% and 15% bone and the total of the rest of the carcass will be muscle (meat)
• Code 5 – a very round carcass, which have between 10% and 12% bone with lots and lots of muscle (meat)
To see classification chart click here ….
The conformation of carcass is mostly of importance for the buyer who wants to debone the carcass into primal cuts and not so much important for the consumer, because the consumer buy with their eyes and therefore can decide for themselves what is the ratio between meat and bone and therefore if it is acceptable for them to buy it or not.
The conformation stamp has the figure of a star and will be stamped on all species concerned with green edible ink.
Source – SAMIC
