DETERMINATION OF THE FLAVOR ATTRIBUTES OF COOKED BEEF FROM CROSSBRED ANGUS STEERS FED CORN-BASED OR BARLEY-BASED DIETS

Eighteen commercial Angus cross-bred feedlot steers of similar hip hei ght and live weight were randomly assigned to one of three dietary tre atment groups, corn-, corn/barley, or barley-based diets (n = 6 per tr eatment). Steers were fed for 102-103 days on their respective diets p rior to slaughter. Live animal performance traits, carcass characteris tics, total lipid and descriptive flavor and descriptive palatability attributes of beef strip loin steaks were determined. End live weight (P = 0.88) did not differ between dietary treatments. Beef carcasses f rom steers fed corn-, barley-, and corn/barley-based diets did not dif fer in hot carcass weight (P = 0.18), ribeye area (P = 0.21), kidney, pelvic and heart fat (KPH) (P = 0.35), and yield grade (P = 0.14). How ever, adjusted preliminary yield grade was higher (P = 0.03) for carca sses from steers fed corn/barley-based diets than carcasses from steer s fed barley as the dietary energy source. These data suggest that car casses from steers fed barley-based diets were lower in external fat, Quality grade characteristics were not different in beef carcasses fro m steers fed either corn-, barley-, or a corn /barley-based diet. Cook time (P = 0.37), cooking loss (P = 0.83), descriptive meat palatabili ty attributes (P > 0.27), Warner-Bratzler shear force (P = 0.25), and descriptive sensory flavor attributes (P greater than or equal to 0.17 ) did not differ for steaks from steers fed the three diets prior to s laughter. The Japanese have claimed that feeding cattle barley-based h igh energy, diets result in beef with different flavor than when cattl e are fed high-energy corn-based diets. These results indicated that t he eating quality, tenderness and flavor attributes of beef steaks wer e not influenced by the dietary grain source fed to young steers in th is study prior to slaughter. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science