Forage-fed cattle point the way forward for beef?

• Main Authors: Gillian Butler, Ali Mohamed Ali, Samson Oladokun, Juan Wang, Hannah Davis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-06-01
• Series: Future Foods
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666833521000022

Many try to eat sustainably but reliable information is lacking, and environmental impact often prioritises over nutritional quality. Here we consider beneficial fatty acid profiles in steaks from 4 UK systems: non-organic, organic, certified pasture-fed and conservation cattle.Most individual fatty acids and ratios considered beneficial for health (individual and total omega 3, vaccenic acid and CLA) followed a gradient, against assumed intensity of production. Ratios for linoleic acid: α-linolenic acid, omega-6:omega-3 and SFA:PUFA in pasture-fed sirloins were only 27%, 55% and 70% (respectively) of those in non-organic beef. Intramuscular fat from pasture-fed meat had twice as much omega-3 and 1.9x the long chain omega-3 concentrations compared with non-organic meat, with a ratio of omega-6:omega-3 only 38% of that in non-organic meat.Meat from 100% pasture-fed and conservation grazing offer public good, matching dietary guidelines better than meat from mainstream systems and qualifying as a source of long chain omega-3 fatty acids.