Applying computer vision in meat quality evaluation has been an active area of research in recent years. Various studies have addressed issues from basic technique development to applications. This paper summarizes the main results from a number of recent application studies, which include characterization of quality attributes such as color, marbling, maturity and texture; prediction of sensory scores and grades; and prediction of cooked-meat tenderness. The promise of computer vision for objective meat quality evaluation is demonstrated and the remaining challenges are discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.