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Supranutritional Administration of Vitamins E and C Improves Oxidative Stability of Beef^1,2,

Daniel M. Schaefer^*,3, Qingping Liu^*, Cameron Faustman and Mei-Chin Yin

^* Department of Meat and Animal Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1284 Department of Animal Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-4040

Vitamins E and C are important antioxidants in animals. Their antemortem activity continues to function in postmortem muscle (meat), where they have a critical role in maintaining quality in the food product. Dietary supplementation of vitamin E, and intravenous infusion of vitamin C immediately before harvest, are efficacious techniques for increasing the concentration of these vitamins in beef skeletal muscle. Meat with elevated levels of either and probably both of these antioxidant vitamins possesses greater stability of oxymyoglobin and lipid, which results in less discoloration and rancidity, respectively. A model is proposed for the redox relationships between myoglobin and phospholipid in beef with emphasis on vitamins E and C. Antemortem nutritional intervention appears to be a promising approach for improving the quality of fresh meat products subsequently obtained from livestock.

KEY WORDS: • cattle • myoglobin • lipid • -tocopherol • ascorbic acid

¹ Presented as part of the 35th Annual Ruminant Nutrition Conference: Beyond Deficiency: New Views of Vitamins in Ruminant Nutrition and Health, given at the Experimental Biology 94 meeting, Anaheim, CA, April 24, 1994. This conference was sponsored by the American Institute of Nutrition and was supported by grants from BASF Corporation, Cargill-Nutrena Feed Division, Monsanto Agricultural Co., Farmland Industries Inc., Pitman-Moore Inc., NutriBasics, Agway Inc. Agriculture Group, Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc., Roche Vitamins & Fine Chemicals, Alltech Biotechnology Center and Merck & Co., Inc. The guest editor for this symposium was Richard A. Roeder, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID.

² Supported by the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the University of Connecticut, Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., the Wisconsin Beef Council, the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board in cooperation with the Beef Industry Council of the National Live Stock and Meat Board, Oscar Mayer Foods Corp. and Packerland Packing Co., Green Bay, WI. Experimental protocols involving animals (RARC A-07-4400-A406) received prior approval from the Animal Care Committee of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

³ To whom correspondence should be addressed: 1675 Observatory Dr., University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1284.