Slaughtering of heifers in a local or an industrial abattoir: Animal welfare and meat quality consequences

•Slaughtering in small-scale local vs large-scale abattoir reduced animal stress.•Further improvements of animal welfare are needed in both commercial systems.•Consumers could differentiate steak colour from the different slaughter systems.•Meat from local abattoir has improved palatability and shear force values.•Final pH is not thought to be the main contributor to the meat quality differences.