Keeping beef cattle in free-range conditions fattens the animals more slowly and toughens the meat. At least that was what many meat producers feared. Keeping the animals indoors, feeding them as much as possible and allowing them the least possible movement was thought to be better. Researchers from the ETH Institute for Animal Sciences have investigated – and thoroughly disproved it. The result of their study: meat from beef cattle pastured on grass with ample room to run around is less tough than from indoor-fed animals.

Tender cattle from extensive pasture

The scientists compared the texture of 70 steaks from free-range pastured beef cattle raised by the suckler cow system with meat from cattle and young bullocks from conventional operations and from their own tagged young bull fattening. Using special equipment in the laboratory, they measured the force needed to cut samples as thick as a sausage from an entrecote steak. The researchers had previously grilled each of these steaks for the same length of time.

The results disprove the assertion that free-range animals on pasture and grazing mainly grass yield tough meat. “In fact we found the best tenderness in the meat of older cattle from extensive pasture fattening,” says Martin Scheeder. Meat from young cattle which were given milk from the mother cows in addition to grass was still sufficiently tender but slightly less so. However, the meat from young bulls with conventional indoor fattening was beyond a threshold value for the tenderness of beef as defined by meat experts.

Cooling can toughen it

However, whether a piece of meat becomes tough depends not only on the husbandry conditions and feeding. For hygiene reasons, the carcass should be cooled quickly after slaughter. However, if the carcass has already cooled down too far before rigor mortis begins, the muscles contract and the meat turns into bootleather. Because the meat from free-range cattle often has a thinner fat covering, it cools down more quickly.

But if the researchers stimulated the carcasses with an electric current during the shock cooling, the meat remained more tender. However, the meat did not become any more tender when it was cooled more slowly without electrical stimulation.

Reader Martin Scheeder uses this material testing machine to examine the tenderness of steaks. large

Martin Scheeder, Reader at the Institute of Animal Sciences, concludes that “Technical procedures are important if the meat is to remain tender.” The processors must also play their part as well as the farmer. “The whole cooling chain and the transport is involved in deciding whether we eat tough or tender meat.”

Beef from pastured cattle contains healthy fatty acids

Further studies by the ETH livestock researchers show that the meat of biologically raised beef from pasture husbandry provides an important additional benefit: healthy polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids. This is because pastured cattle ingest more omega-3 fatty acids via the grass than beef cattle receiving maize silage and concen¬trated feed in a stable. These fatty acids become incorporated into their bodies. The ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids is particularly important for human nutrition. As ETH doctoral student Regina Razminowicz showed, bio-beef from pasture husbandry is a cut above stable-fed meat from this point of view as well.

“People in the western world ingest about one fifth of their long-chain polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids via meat,” says Scheeder. The new nutritional value studies appear to show that meat is a valuable foodstuff and that beef and the meat of other grazing animals such as sheep offer benefits with regard to the omega-6/omega-3 ratio. The nutritional value analysis by ETH doctoral student Nadine Gerber also formed part of the input to the new nutritional values table for meat and meat products published by the industry association “Proviande” (1), which provided financial support for part of the research.

Scheeder explains that the idea of updating the nutritional value data for meat originated from the Institute and not from “Proviande”. He says experience with students from the food sciences showed that the majority were only aware that fish contain healthy long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. Many people did not know that these are also present in other animal products such as meat and eggs. “We wanted to obtain actual figures for this, so we carried out a comprehensive nutritional value analysis." These are the values that were included in the industry association’s nutritional values table.