Observations were carried out on 31 Black-and-White (BW), 16 Charolaise (CH) and 18 Simmental (S) bulls at the age of 12-15 months. Determined were: taste, aroma, tenderness and consistency of longissimus dorsi muscle. Fragment of the bovine CATD gene encoding procathepsin D was amplified and subjected to RFLP analysis with restriction nuclease ApaI. Only two genotypes were identified:GG and GA, the frequencies of the alleles being 0.806 and 0.194 in BW, 0.656 and 0.344 in CH and 0.639 and 0.361 in S bulls, respectively.In the muscle, the total cathepsin D (CatD), pepstatin-sensitive cathepsin D (PSCatD), pepstatininsensitive and leupeptin-insensitive acid autolytic activities (PIAAA and LIAAA, respectively) were determined. No interbreed differences in CatD, PSCatD and the percent of inhibition in cathepsin D were found. PIAAA and LIAAA significantly differed between breeds (P≤0.01), being higher In BW by 47.9, 46.4 and 34.6% than in CH and by 40.8, 37.5 and 22.7% than in S bulls, respectively.The percent AAA inhibition by leupeptin in BW bulls was by 14.9% higher than in CH and by 24.2% than in S bulls. In CH bulls, the inhibition of AAA by pepstatin depended on the genotype, being higher in GA than GG animals by 15.83% (P≤0.05). The protein percent of muscle in CH and S bulls was by 33.4 % and 36.7 % higher, respectively, than of BW bulls muscle. Highly significant differences in sensory traits of muscle were identified between BW and CH or S bulls.The sensory traits assessed were higher in meat of CH and S than of BW bulls by 36.09 % and 35.54% in aroma, by 35.67% and 33.15% in taste, by 32.24% and 21.31% in tenderness and by 36.68% and 38.24% in consistency, respectively. These differences were identified as significant in aroma, taste, tenderness and consistency between the meat of BW and CH or S bulls (P≤0.01).Within tenderness, the difference was found significant also between CH and S bulls (P≤0.05, by 9.01%higher in CH). When the genotypes (GA and GG) were combined with estimated sensory parameters, only in meat of BW bulls significant differences were identified between genotypes In aroma, taste and consistency (P≤0.01) in favour of GG genotype bulls.