<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Tenderness is the most important characteristic of meat, determining consumer approval. There are numerous methods of its improvement, although of diverse effectiveness. addition of vitamin D3 to the feed for a short period before slaughter (7–10 days) is one of the natural ways to enhance the tenderness. Vitamin D3 is responsible for Ca2+ mobilisation in serum and increase in activity of proteolytic enzymes belonging to calpains, which results in significant improvement of beef tenderness and reduction of ageing time. The use of vitamin D3 is an application tool determining tenderness improvement of beef with substantial reduction in processing costs. Moreover, shorter <italic>post mortem</italic> ageing process will exceed the retail display time, which will consequently reduce losses due to unsold meat being returned from shops to the manufacturers. Based on the results of studies conducted over the last 15 years, this paper presents the possibility and the effects of the use of vitamin D3 to improve beef tenderness.</abstract>

Tenderness is the most important characteristic of meat, determining consumer approval. There are numerous methods of its improvement, although of diverse effectiveness. addition of vitamin D3 to the feed for a short period before slaughter (7–10 days) is one of the natural ways to enhance the tenderness. Vitamin D3 is responsible for Ca2+ mobilisation in serum and increase in activity of proteolytic enzymes belonging to calpains, which results in significant improvement of beef tenderness and reduction of ageing time. The use of vitamin D3 is an application tool determining tenderness improvement of beef with substantial reduction in processing costs. Moreover, shorter post mortem ageing process will exceed the retail display time, which will consequently reduce losses due to unsold meat being returned from shops to the manufacturers. Based on the results of studies conducted over the last 15 years, this paper presents the possibility and the effects of the use of vitamin D3 to improve beef tenderness.

Beef tenderness improvement by dietary vitamin D3 supplementation in the last stage of fattening of cattle

Department of Technique and Food Development, Warsaw University of Life Science, 02-776 Warsaw,

Journal of Veterinary Research

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Beef tenderness improvement by dietary vitamin D supplementation in the last stage of fattening of cattle

Tenderness is the most important characteristic of meat, determining consumer approval. There are numerous methods of its improvement, although of diverse...

Beef tenderness improvement by dietary vitamin D₃ supplementation in the last stage of fattening of cattle

Published Online: Apr 04, 2017

Page range: 59 - 67

Received: Jan 19, 2016

Accepted: Mar 10, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jvetres-2017-0008

Keywords
beef, texture, feed system, vitamin D

© 2017 Andrzej Półtorak et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Beef tenderness improvement by dietary vitamin D3 supplementation in the last stage of fattening of cattle

Published Online: Apr 04, 2017

Page range: 59 - 67

Received: Jan 19, 2016

Accepted: Mar 10, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jvetres-2017-0008

Keywordsbeef, texture, feed system, vitamin D

© 2017 Andrzej Półtorak et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Beef tenderness improvement by dietary vitamin D₃ supplementation in the last stage of fattening of cattle

Keywords
beef, texture, feed system, vitamin D