Hard Fat Project

Summary

Grain feeding of cattle in Australia usually leads to a substantial increase in fat hardness, particularly where feeding is continued beyond 100 days. For Australian meat processors, this results in a significant increase in production costs due to difficulties in boning carcases with hard fat. In order to avoid hard fat, carcases are boned at higher temperattires which has significant implications for meat quality and food safety.

The effect of long-tenn grain feeding is opposite to that observed in the U. S. . Long"term feeding of cattle in the U. S. generally results in an increase in the concentration of unsaturated fatty acids, which would reduce fat hardness. Our research had two specific objectives:

To document the relative proportions of triglyceride species in beef fat varying widely in melting points (fat hardness)

To quantify the amount of saturated fatty acids located in the outer (sri-1/3) positions of triglycerides,