Table 1. Comparison of meat quality and chemical characteristics between longissimus thoracis (LT) and vastus lateralis (VL) muscles from different quality grades (1+ and 1) at 24 h postmortem

Muscle	LT Muscle		VL Muscle		SEM	Level of significance
Grade	1⁺	1	1⁺	1	SEM	M	G	M×G
Muscle pH_u	5.36^b	5.37^b	5.47^ab	5.50^a	0.10	*	NS	NS
Lightness (L*)	41.1^a	39.2^b	36.6^c	37.1^c	0.57	^***	NS	^*
Redness (a*)	22.3	22.1	23.5	23.1	0.60	NS	NS	NS
Yellowness (b*)	10.6	9.94	9.98	9.73	0.37	NS	NS	NS
Chemical analysis
Intramuscular fat (%)	19.8^a	15.9^b	10.8^c	11.1^c	1.52	^***	NS	NS
Collagen (%)	0.18^b	0.13^b	0.39^a	0.31^a	0.05	^***	NS	NS
Myoglobin (mg/g)	6.39^b	6.29^b	6.84^a	6.97^a	0.28	^*	NS	NS

Different superscripts in the same row represent significant differences (p<0.05).
p<0.05, ^*** p<0.001.
M, muscle; G, grade; NS, not significant.