Slice shear force measurements do not reliably predict consumer-perceived tenderness in beef from mature cattle because they correlate more strongly with fat content than with sensory tenderness, indicating that instrumental measures may misrepresent eating quality in aged beef.

In older cattle, fat inside the muscle makes the meat easier to cut with a machine, but this doesn't mean the meat is actually tender when chewed. The machine measures how much force it takes to slice through the meat, and fat gets cut easily, so the reading looks low — like the meat is tender. But the real toughness comes from stiff fibers and old collagen that don't break down easily, and those aren't measured by the machine. So the machine gets fooled by fat and gives a wrong idea of how tender the meat really is.