A much as anyone, beef producers enjoy spoiling themselves and their families occasionally by going out to a good restaurant.

Like winemakers critically tasting the wines on the menu, they peruse the red meats with some educated knowledge.

Some restaurants list the beef by its breed, hoping this will attract fussy diners with the reputation of the breed name.

Some diners select a particular steak based on the cut of the beef to increase their chance of a good eating experience.

Often a diner will ask for medium rare to further remove any risks of a dud.

Having picked a reasonable restaurant, a more expensive cut of beef and asked for the chef to cook it to its best, it can be a little disappointing when the waiter brings out serrated steak knives.

Is it time to change your order if no normal knife will dent the food for which you’ve just paid half a day’s wages?

Sharks have serrated teeth because they’re not fussy eaters, but people aren’t supposed to need them.

The Beef CRC has demonstrated after many years’ work that it is possible to produce tender beef and the industry is slowly adopting technology to respond to consumer demand.

Early work showed differences in tenderness of the progeny of cattle measured for differences in temperament.

In Bos indicus content animals, quieter cattle, as measured by the ‘flight time’ test, produce progeny with more tender, higher eating quality meat.

Genes affect tenderness and there are now gene marker tests for differences in the genetic makeup of cattle for tenderness.

Hormonal Growth Promotants (HGPs) tend to reduce tenderness.

HGPs cause a change in the calpain to calpastatin ratio (enzymes) in some muscles.

They cause the live animal to grow faster but reduce the ability of the meat to tenderize after slaughter.

The effect is likely to be different for different HGPs.

Hanging the carcase by ‘tenderstretch’ can also significantly improve the tenderness of many cuts.

Ageing the meat increases its tenderness.

Whilst it may be possible to lift tenderness through genetic selection, big advantages are gained during processing.

As restaurant consumers, producers realise that being able to enjoy every beef meal encourages return buyers… and overcomes the need for the waiter to offer specialist cutting equipment, as, coincidentally, one did to the editor's family the other night in a Canberra restaurant.