In terms of nutritional value beef is a very valued variety of meat. In order to obtain a high culinary value, this raw material requires treatments to develop desirable sensory properties of meat. The quality characteristics of beef are substantially improved during a reasonably long period of ageing, which is a natural process that takes place in each muscle of the carcass after a rigor mortis phase. Beef has been aged in cold storage conditions for over a century. Dry or wet ageing are currently used on an industrial scale. They are carried out either intentionally (with a target set) or incidentally as one of the elements of meat distribution and sales. The paper presents various methods and conditions of beef ageing (including packaging) and their effect on the quality properties of meat (water-holding capacity, tenderness, and palatability). In addition to the unquestionably positive aspects of post-slaughter ageing of beef, those processes are also shown, which may negatively affect the final meat quality, mainly because of the oxidation of muscle tissue components (lipids, pigments, and proteins). When conducted properly (usually under the vacuum conditions), the post-mortem ageing process of beef meat makes it possible to obtain a product of high quality, i.e. properly tender and palatable as well as safe in terms of health. The analysis of the reference literature available shows that the culinary beef meat achieves its full sensory values in the third week of ageing at 2 ÷ 4 ºC.