Dietary Polyphenol Supplementation in Food Producing Animals: Effects on the Quality of Derived Products

Abstract

The growing interest in producing healthier animal products with a higher ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids, is associated with an increase in lipoperoxidation. For this reason, it is essential to attenuate oxidative deterioration in the derived products. Natural antioxidants such as polyphenols represent a good candidate in this respect. The first part of the review highlights the occurrence, bioavailability, and the role of polyphenols in food-producing animals that, especially in intensive systems, are exposed to stressful situations in which oxidation plays a crucial role. The second part offers an overview of the effects of polyphenols either supplemented to the diet of monogastric and ruminants or added directly to meat and dairy products on the physicochemical and sensorial properties of the product. From this review emerges that polyphenols play an important, though not always clear, role in the quality of meat and meat products, milk and dairy products. It cannot be ruled out that different compounds or amounts of polyphenols may lead to different results. However, the inclusion of agro-industrial by-products rich in polyphenols, in animal feed, represents an innovative and alternative source of antioxidants as well as being useful in reducing environmental and economic impact.

Effects of Ferulic Acid Supplementation on Growth Performance, Carcass Traits and Histochemical Characteristics of Muscle Fibers in Finishing Pigs

“…The replacement of growth promoters such as β-agonist and antibiotic growth promoters has been a great challenge for the meat industry for several years. Phytochemical compounds have been proposed as a natural alternative [ 27 , 28 ]. However, few phytochemicals have shown positive or at least similar effects to those triggered by traditional promoters on growth performance characteristics.…”

Reviewing the Benefits of Grazing/Browsing Semiarid Rangeland Feed Resources and the Transference of Bioactivity and Pro-Healthy Properties to Goat Milk and Cheese: Obesity, Insulin Resistance, Inflammation and Hepatic Steatosis Prevention

“…In such conditions animals modulate the ingestion of PBC by shifting the selection from low (e.g., leaves and cladodes) to high PBC (e.g., stems and complete plants) concentrations and vice versa [29]. Therefore, intake choices and animal ingestion behavior have direct impact in terms of bioactivity of milk and cheese [5,10,16,23]. In these farming conditions, the ability of animals to match food items varying in PBC to meet nutritional requirements is remarkable, because it must be underneath the threshold of PBC harmful intake [5,23].…”

“…Indoor feeding instead, increased the concentration of specific PCB as ferulic acid, because maize grain, which is included in the indoor diet formulation, is a rich supply of such phytochemical. Apart from nutritional and hygienic quality, hedonic quality is a major driver of consumers food preference [56], a characteristic that would be improved by the occurrence of PBC in milk and cheese products increasing their acceptance [16]. Because of distinct PBC between milk and cheese, it is expected that consumer preference would also be shaped by this effect.…”

“…Despite the fact that many variables modify the content of bioactive compounds of milk and cheese, it is well accepted that animal feeding is the factor that has the greatest impact [13,14]. In addition, indoor feeding has shown benefits in terms of bioactivity if the animal diet includes substantial bioactive ingredients that surpass the animal's biological metabolism and reaches the milk and cheese components [15][16][17][18]. Anti-inflammatory, anticarcinogenic, and cardioprotective effects of phytonutrients [19,20] are the most common desirable effects that might be found in milk and cheese [21,22].…”

Effects of Dietary Rosemary Extract Supplementation on Pork Quality of Chato Murciano Breed during Storage

“…Gorelik and Kanner [ 38 ] indicated that lipid peroxidation promotes the formation of rancid and other unpleasant odours, the oxidation of myoglobin resulting in deterioration in the colour of fresh meat. Regarding animal feed, rosemary did not significantly affect the evaluated attributes ( p ≥ 0.05), except on days 7 and 21 of storage in the case of meat odour and on day 21 for meat colour and fat colour, when the R samples presented the highest values for these attributes, this confirms the positive effect of the rosemary extract on the odour and colour of the meat [ 39 ]. Additionally, on days 7 and 14 of storage, the pigs fed with rosemary showed the lowest rancid odour value.…”