Jeju black cattle are known as one of Korea’s traditional cattle. However,
Hanwoo is more well-known to Korean meat consumers as representative beef
cattle. Despite the popularity of these two breeds, comparison of the
nutritional characteristics between Jeju black cattle and Hanwoo have not been
studied. Here, we compared the fatty acid and amino acid characteristics between
two Korean traditional cattle and Wagyu breeds. A total of 62 cattle were used
in this study. The Jeju black cattle beef had significantly higher unsaturated
fatty acids than Hanwoo (p<0.05). Savory fatty acids, including oleic
acid were also higher than in Hanwoo cattle (p<0.05). The negative flavor
fatty acids, such as palmitic acid were significantly lower than in Hanwoo
(p<0.001). On the other hand, linoleic acid which imparts a negative
flavor was higher than Hanwoo (p<0.05). Amino acids, including alanine
and glutamine, usually representative of the umami taste were present in
significantly higher proportions in Jeju black cattle (p<0.05). In
addition, bitter tasting amino acids, including valine, leucine, isoleucine, and
methionine were lower in Jeju black cattle beef than in Hanwoo (p<0.05,
p<0.001, p<0.001, and p<0.001 each). Taken together, our
results suggest that Jeju black cattle beef had higher savory flavor and umami
taste which affected consumers preference for the meat.