Nine carcasses of yearling Tudanca males were used to evaluate, in the conditions of a commercial slaughterhouse, the effect of two chilling treatments (conventional: introduction of right half carcasses (n=9) in a chilling room at 1.8 ºC immediately after slaughter, or slow: introduction of left half carcasses (n=9) in a chilling room at 13.9 ºC until 7 hours postmortem) on carcass hygienic quality and meat physicochemical characteristics. Differences were observed in Longissimus dorsi muscle temperature at 5, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 24 hours postmortem (P ≤ 0.05). No differences were observed in pH values at 24 hours postmortem (all values below 5.7) (P > 0.05), but higher values (P ≤ 0.05) were registered at 5, 9, 10, 11 and 12 hours postmortem in conventional than in slow refrigerated carcasses. Sarcomere length of conventional refrigerated carcasses was lower than sarcomere length of slow refrigerated carcasses (P ≤ 0.05). No differences were observed in shear force values of Longissius dorsi muscle at 3 and 14 days postmortem (P > 0.05) but a trend was observed at 7 days postmortem, with lower values for slow refrigerated carcasses than for conventional refrigerated carcasses (P = 0.07). Chilling treatment had no effect on total aerobic viable counts at 24 hours postmortem, neither on Longissimus dorsi colour, cooking losses and lipid oxidation measured at 3, 7, and 14 days postmortem (P > 0.05).