Artificial marbling is the injection of animal fat or vegetable oil into lean meat in order to simulate the appearance of marbling and attempt to improve the palatability of inexpensive cuts by preventing them from drying out or losing flavour during the freezing or cooking process.
[3] Hokubee Australia markets its fat-injected beef product under the brand name Meltique, though its halal products use canola oil instead of fat, due to concerns about cross-contamination with pork tallow.
[7] A 1999 Polish study found that fat-injected horse meat tended to retain more flavour than non-injected control samples after two-week and three-month periods of cold storage.
[8] Another 2007 U.S. study by Tyson Foods and the University of Arkansas used beef strip loin and injected it with conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in powder form, or oil with high concentration of CLAs.
Under visual assessment by independent panelists, the USDA marbling score of the powder-treated meat increased by two levels.