Chemical composition of commercial steers, heifers and young bull carcases

Abstract

Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of dietary issues and are demanding that food is labelled effectively with compositional information. In the past 20 years major changes have taken place in beef production, in particular the greater use of young bulls and the introduction of genes from several continental breeds, which have the potential of producing leaner meat. The current standard reference, McCance and Widdowson's ‘The Composition of Foods’ was last revised over 10 years ago, so this trial was set up in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to provide up-to-date estimates of the chemical composition of beef.

Reducing fat quantity: implications for meat quality and health

“…As a result, the lipid content of tissues has declined and the fatty acid composition of lipid has moved in a 'healthier' direction. Kempster et al (1986); Lowe et al (1990); Wood et al (1989) As is shown in Table 1 there are several ways to describe the composition and fat content of meat. The figures in Table 1 show that the current P:S ratio in pigmeat is about 0.3 which compares with about 0.1 in beef and lamb.…”