End of Project ReportThis project was supported by the European Commission (Healthy Beef, QLRT-CT-2000-31423).Consumer interest in the nutritional aspects of health has increased
interest in developing methods to manipulate the fatty acid composition
of ruminant products. Ruminant meats such as beef and lamb
are often criticised by nutritionists for having high amounts of saturated
fatty acids (S) and low polyunsaturated fatty acids (P).The P:S
ratio in beef is approximately 0.1, the ideal being about 0.4.
This project is part of a larger EU-supported project entitled
Healthy Beef (Enhancing the content of beneficial fatty acids in beef
and improving meat quality for the consumer: QLRT-CT-2000-31423).
The Teagasc contribution, which was a collaboration between
Grange Research Centre and The National Food Centre, focussed
on nutritional manipulation of beef cattle. In particular, on exploiting
grazing and fishoil as tools to enhance the concentration of
“healthy” fatty acids in beef.
The conclusions were:
• The beneficial effect of a grazed grass-based diet on the fatty
acid composition of beef was confirmed
• The scale of this beneficial effect is strongly dependent on the
duration of grazing
• The optimum concentration of beneficial fatty acids was not
achieved suggesting that feeding management prior to grazing
is important
• Grazing influenced beef colour and drip-loss in a durationdependent
manner
• Animals finished off grass for 40 or 98 days produced meat
that was tougher than that from animals finished on silage and
concentrates or fed grass for the last 158 days.
• Fish oil supplementation enhanced the concentration in beef,
of fatty acids that are beneficial to human health
• The linear response to increasing level of fish oil consumption
indicates scope to further enhance the concentrations of
beneficial fatty acids in beef Wilting of grass prior to ensiling did not impact negatively on
the overall content of n-3P in muscle, but it increased the
concentration of conjugated linoleic acid
• Dietary inclusion of fish oil or wilting of grass prior to ensiling
did not affect muscle appearance
• Fish oil seemed to increase tenderness but only at the high
level of inclusion. This merits further study
• There was some evidence that wilting of grass prior to ensiling
enhanced meat tenderness. This needs to be confirmed.European Unio
