Study shows consumers find grass-fed beef acceptable
August 4, 2008High feed-grain prices and the growing interest in "natural" foods have spurred both consumers and farmers to consider grass-fed beef, and a recent study done by Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences researchers may reinforce this trend.
According to John Comerford, associate professor of dairy and animal science, the study showed that most consumers find the taste and tenderness of grass-fed beef acceptable in blind taste tests. He recommends that producers look for ways to interest more potential customers in grass-fed beef.
"There are also some important human health benefits related to components of grass-finished beef," said Comerford, who oversees the University's beef research and extension programs. "While there is no difference in the cholesterol content of grass-and grain-finished beef, and the limited amount of conjugated linoleic acid in cooked steaks is too small to do much for human health, there is still an advantage in the increased omega-3 fat content in grass-fed beef."
Emily Steinberg, who recently completed her master's degree in the Department of Dairy and Animal Science, conducted consumer evaluations of cooked grass-fed beef steaks and analyzed production issues for farmers. Her work suggests that some of the preconceived notions held by farmers about the physical type of the cattle and the length of the grazing season needed for high-quality grass-fed beef may not be true.
"The results of the study showed that most consumer evaluations of the cooked meat were not influenced by frame sizes of the cattle, weight at harvest, range of grazing period from 120-180 days, and final fat composition of the carcass," Comerford explained. "However, all of the cattle must have plenty of high-quality forage to consume daily plus be harvested at 18 months of age or less. None of the production practices or consumer values studied were related to the final fatty acid profiles or cholesterol content of the steaks.”
Comerford notes that these results give grass-fed beef producers tremendous flexibility in the kind of cattle they feed and the way they market their cattle. "Not surprisingly, we found finishing productive, healthy cattle on good pastures and stored forages for at least 120 days is far more important to consumer acceptance of the product than cattle's frame size or how fat the animals are.
"In fact, we found cattle that had the fattest final carcasses actually had lower scores from the consumer panels because of the influence of fat on beef flavor," Comerford said. "Further research will attempt to reduce the inconsistency of consumer scores for many traits of the meat by post-harvest interventions such as marinades and carcass aging."
Source: Penn State
-
FDA limits some antibiotics in livestock
Jan 04, 2012 |
not rated yet |
1
-
Paraguay confirms new foot-and-mouth outbreak
Jan 03, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
PhD research advances understanding on how to mitigate methane emissions
Dec 07, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
S.America takes aim at foot-and-mouth disease
Nov 23, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Cleaning cows from inside out
Nov 15, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (31) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Bohr-Einstein debate: why did Bohr not simply say...
Feb 06, 2012
-
Best/Worst U.S. Presidents
Jan 31, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - History & Humanities
More news stories
A frank discussion of the power law and linking correlation to causation
(PhysOrg.com) -- Michael Stumpf a mathematics professor at Imperial College in London, and Mason Porter a lecturer at Oxford have teamed together to write and publish a perspective piece in Science regarding the in ...
Employers feel no love for unscrupulous practice of 'service sweethearting'
A new study led by two Florida State University marketing professors finds that some frontline service employees who are rewarded for hikes in customer loyalty and satisfaction also may engage in "service ...
Other Sciences / Economics & Business
Feb 10, 2012 |
3.3 / 5 (3) |
11
US workers are 'giving away the store,' costing firms billions
Nearly 70 percent of the nation's service employees give away free goods and services from hamburgers to cable TV costing companies billions of dollars a year, according to a groundbreaking study.
Other Sciences / Economics & Business
Feb 09, 2012 |
3.5 / 5 (4) |
10
New insights into how to correct false knowledge
The abundance of false information available on the Internet, in movies and on TV has created a big challenge for educators.
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Feb 07, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (7) |
9
|
Neanderthal demise due to many influences, including cultural changes: study
As an ice age crept upon them thousands of years ago, Neanderthals and modern human ancestors expanded their territory ranges across Asia and Europe to adapt to the changing environment.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Feb 07, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (5) |
8
|
Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon
(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...
Latin America mining boom clashes with conservation
Latin America is experiencing a mining boom as prices rise fuelled by a hike in global demand, but the region is also being hit by a wave of violent protests, strikes and rallies by environmentalists.
Love a click away in Indonesia's Twitter Republic
He was a geeky kid from Yogyakarta, she a glamorous city girl in Jakarta. In a country with one of the world's most vibrant social networking scenes they fell in love on Twitter.
Europeans protest controversial Internet pact
Tens of thousands of people marched in protests in more than a dozen European cities Saturday against a controversial anti-online piracy pact that critics say could curtail Internet freedom.
Walney offshore wind farm is world's biggest (for now)
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Walney wind farm on the Irish Sea--characterized by high tides, waves and windy weather--officially opened this week. The farm is treated in the press as a very big deal as the Walney ...
Navy to begin tests on electromagnetic railgun prototype launcher
The Office of Naval Research (ONR)'s Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun program will take an important step forward in the coming weeks when the first industry railgun prototype launcher is tested at a facility ...
Aug 05, 2008
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
http://www.slate....2152674/
Aug 25, 2008
Rank: not rated yet