There is discussion within the meat industry as to whether increased marbling in fresh pork loin chops leads to increased eating satisfaction in the final product. While some believe that pork with more marbling will be more tender, more juicy, and more flavorful, others disagree with this concept. This project was conducted to investigate the effects of marbling on eating quality when all pork came from one genetic line, similar production systems, and variation in pH was kept to a minimum. The amount of marbling in the chops ranged from less than 1% (almost undetectable visually) to more than 10% (very highly marbled). The pork chops were consumed by both a trained sensory panel and a panel made up of the general public. Results from this study indicate that neither the consumer panel nor the trained panel were able to detect large differences when the pork chops were consumed from this population. Results also indicate that consumers are much more likely to select lean pork chops from a retail case than pork chops that display a large amount of marbling.