Meat traits of steers Nelore and Galician Blond x Nelore supplemented with chromium

Abstract

Were evaluated physical and chemical traits of meat from steers Nelore (NEL) and Galician Blond x Nelore (GBN) supplemented with chromium picolinate (Cr), using a M. longissimus thoracis samples collected between the 12th and 13th ribs from 24 animals. It was adopted a completely randomized design in a factorial scheme 2 x 2. It is measured pH, fat thickness (FT), cooking (CL) and packaging losses (PL), tenderness and color of the beef, as well as moisture (M), ether extract (EE), mineral matter (MM) and crude protein (CP). The animals GBN showed beef with higher pH (5.63), lower FT (1.87 mm) and higher CL (19.08%). The beef from NEL showed higher luminosity and red color intensity (L*36.70 e a*17.72). The meat from steers supplemented with Cr had a higher percentage of CP (22.14%) and the GBN animals showed meat less EE and higher MC (73.23%). Thereby, supplementation with Cr influenced the increase of meat protein and the insertion of Galician Blond genotype reduces the percentage of fat in meat, without, however, affecting other attributes, being an option for which the market is enhanced lean meat.