Abstract
Global animal production systems are often criticized for their lack of sustainability and insufficient resilience to ensure food security. The ‘farm-to-fork’ approach aims at orienting food systems towards the creation of a positive environmental impact, nutritious, healthy, safe and sufficient foods, and fairer economic returns for primary producers. Many countries rely on an imported supply of live animals to fulfill their needs for fresh meat. In Israel, ~60% of the sources of fresh beef come from the import of live animals. In order to encourage sustainable beef production in Israel, the proportion of local beef should be raised at the expense of imported animals. However, for this to be achieved, the superior performance of local beef should be justified. The current study was conducted to compare between the meat quality characteristics of local (Israeli Holstein; N = 205) vs. imported (Australian; N = 169) animals. Generally, while the imported calves presented a higher dressing percentage (p < 0.0001), the local animals were characterized by tenderer meat (p < 0.0001), longer sarcomeres (p < 0.0001), higher a* color attributes and pH (p < 0.001), superior cooking (p = 0.002) and thawing loss (p < 0.0001), higher intra-muscular fat (IMF) content, and a higher PUFA proportion (p < 0.01 and p < 0.0001, respectively) and PUFA:SFA ratio. The findings shown herein may provide sound arguments for stakeholders and policy makers to facilitate sustainable local beef production in Israel.
Highlights
It has become evident that the sustainability of food systems is critical to their resilience to the recurrence of natural disasters and health crises
Three groups of animals were the source for the meat samples in the present study: (i) Israeli Holstein male calves (N = 205), reared and fattened, from weaning to slaughter, in two farms located in the northern part of Israel: Farm 1 (F1; N = 62) and Farm 2 (F2; N = 143), at the age of ~12 months. (ii) Farm 3 (F3; N = 169), Australian male calves, imported to Israel at the age of 8–12 weeks
These included the determination of intra-muscular fat content (IMF%) using the Soxhlet method [22], crude protein (CP) content via the Kjeldahl method [23], moisture, and ash [24]
Summary
It has become evident that the sustainability of food systems is critical to their resilience to the recurrence of natural disasters and health crises. Since free-range beef animals constitute only a small fraction of the fresh meat production chain, and due to the limitation of space, which can hardly exceed its current capacity, the vast majority of fresh meat supplies could originate from fattened male calves and culled cows from local dairy farms. As their potential to produce competitive, high-quality beef products is still undefined, many of these animals are transferred out of the country. Abattoirs and meat factories throughout the country, and employs nutritionists, veterinarians, economists, and food technologists, controlling the entire fresh beef supply chain of local and imported animals, for the local consumption
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