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Beef quality and vitamin E

Beef that has lost its bright, cherry-red color is routinely discounted at supermarkets, costing the industry about $1 billion a year. However, various studies have shown that widespread feeding of supplemental vitamin E during the last 100 days before slaughter could reclaim much of this forgone income. A new test for vitamin E levels in finished cattle should spur even wider adoption of vitamin E supplementation to recover that money.

Consumers judge beef by its color. Although beef loses its eye appeal long before it actually loses its wholesomeness, shoppers assume it's past its prime when the color is not bright red. Retailers must commonly discount such packages by up to 50% to salvage some value before the remainder is discarded. Estimated losses range from $60 to $156 per 1,000 pounds of beef sold.

Research initiated at the University of Wisconsin in the late 1980s found that vitamin E from increased supplementation levels, fed before slaughter, is incorporated in the muscle and delays the oxidation of muscle pigments. Today, Colorado State University meat scientists say that when beef cattle which are produced for the domestic market receive 500 IU of supplemental vitamin E per head daily for the last 100 days before slaughter, most of the off-color problem is eliminated. When cattle are fed for the export market, the Colorado State scientists recommend that vitamin E supplementation be doubled to 1,000 IU over the same period. That is to allow for full marketing following the longer shipping time.

The National Cattlemen's Association put these ideas to the test in the Strategic Alliances Field Study of 1993. A group of 1,235 cattle from 15 ranches received 500 IU of supplemental vitamin E for their last 60 to 100 days at the feedlot. The result from reduced discounting was $20.29 more value per carcass sold. Hence, the current interest in strategic alliances between different sectors of the ag-beef-food industry to spread the benefits from the dinner table all the way back to the calving pasture. At a cost of less than $2 per head to feed the vitamin E, the payoff of more than $20 represents greater than a tenfold return on investment. Colorado State meat specialists say the return could increase as longer color shelf life stimulates consumer demand.

 
Packer Test for Vitamin E Comes on Line

The recent development of a practical, economical way for packers to test the vitamin E levels in finished cattle should further increase the use of vitamin E supplementation to increase the color shelf life of beef. The new test, developed by University of Wisconsin researchers led by Dr. Dan Schaefer, will enable packers to quickly determine whether vitamin E is present in the carcass at the necessary levels for longer color shelf life. Fine-tuned over five years, the test measures the vitamin E present in the neck muscle. "Vitamin E won't be present there unless it was fed to the animal for a sustained period," Schaefer explains. "Testing muscle this way prevents a packer from being misled by someone who fed vitamin E for just a few of days before slaughter, instead of the recommended 100 days."

Speed is the new test's great advantage. Before, Schaefer says, it would have taken two or three packing plant employees eight hours to process 40 carcasses. Now, a single employee can run tests in duplicate on 100 carcasses over the same amount of time.

Furthermore, those 100 tested carcasses can serve as a sample for up to seven times as many cattle, Schaefer says. To check a semiload of 38 head, the packer must test only five animals--and if four of the five show the necessary level of vitamin E, the packer can assume that the whole pen received the recommended vitamin E supplementation, given the variation in animals' physiological makeup, Schaefer says.

Thus, every 100 carcasses tested represent 20 loads of 38 animals each, or a total of 760 animals. Schaefer, who refers to his testing procedure as "a first-generation solution," estimates the start-up cost of installing the necessary equipment at $35,000 to $40,000.

Such developments place vitamin E at the center of many beef industry goals: higher quality, less waste, greater consumer satisfaction and the development of wider export trade and value-based markets.

 
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