Effects of the Programmed Nutrition Beef Program on meat quality characteristics

Area of Science:

• Animal Science
• Food Science
• Meat Science

Background:

• Beef production involves various finishing strategies impacting meat quality.
• Understanding the effects of dietary supplements and growth promotants is crucial for optimizing beef characteristics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of alternative finishing diets and exogenous growth promotant programs on beef steak color and cooked meat quality.
• To determine potential interactions between dietary strategies and growth promotants on beef characteristics.

Main Methods:

• A 2x2 factorial design was used with 64 pens of beef steers, comparing conventional (CON) vs. Programmed Nutrition (PN) diets and the presence (EGP+) vs. absence (EGP-) of exogenous growth promotants.
• Steaks were evaluated for objective color measurements during retail display and sensory panel assessment of cooked meat characteristics after aging.

Main Results:

• Programmed Nutrition (PN) diets resulted in darker steaks and reduced moisture loss during aging and cooking compared to conventional (CON) diets.
• Exogenous growth promotants (EGP+) negatively affected myofibrillar and overall tenderness, with an interaction observed for tenderness traits.
• No significant interactions were found between feeding strategy and growth promotants for most objective color and cooked meat characteristics.

Conclusions:

• Alternative feeding strategies can enhance water-holding capacity in beef without compromising retail display color.
• The use of exogenous growth promotants may lead to reduced tenderness in beef steaks, necessitating careful consideration in production systems.