THE FATTY ACID COMPOSITION OF MUSCLE TISSUE OF SIMMENTAL BABY-BEEF

In this work, the fatty acid (FA) composition of muscle tissue of baby-beef cattle was researched with regard to its nutritional value. Twenty- six Simmental cattle of both sexes produced under the intensive conditions of housing and feeding were slaughtered at the age of one year and final weight of 489.6±46.5 kg. The portion of muscle (m.longissimus dorsi) was taken for the chemical analysis at the level of the 8th rib on cooled halves 24 h post mortem. Muscle fat content was determined by Foss-Let apparatus after extraction of lipids with tetrachloroethylene. The fatty acid composition was determined by gas liquid chromatography using in situ transesterification method and given as % of total weight of fatty acids. The average muscle fat content was 18.96 g/kg (95% CI 14.09-23.83). The average proportions of saturated FA (SFA), monounsaturated FA (MUFA) and polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) in muscle tissue were 43.03 (95% CI 42.19-43.87), 43.05 (95% CI 40.74-45.36) and 13.08 % (95% CI 10.96-15.19), respectively. The indicators of nutritional quality of fats like ratios of PUFA to SFA (PUFA/SFA) and n-6 PUFA to n-3 PUFA (n-6/n-3), as well as the atherogenicity index (AI) in muscle were 0.31 (95% CI 0.25-0.36), 13.51 (95% CI 12.59-14.43), and 0.60 (95% CI 0.58-0.63), respectively. These results suggest a need for the improvement of nutritional value of baby-beef fats through the modifications of its FA composition, primarily through n-3 PUFA enrichment