Beef loin

The body of the animal contains the most valuable cuts of beef. Included under this heading are chest, ribs, back, loin and flank.

The beef loin holds more value than any other section. On the beef cut chart the loin extends from the thirteenth rib to the hip joint, excluding the belly. Two valuable muscles sit on either side of the loin bones: the tenderloin and the loin eye muscle.

It should be broad and thick and contain considerable fat, evenly distributed throughout the lean meat. This is equally true of other parts of the body but is particularly so in the case of the loin.

The loin is fabricated in two ways. First the loin can be cut in a way to fabricate for large steaks, such as the porterhouse and t-bone. These two steaks are standards on many steakhouse menus.

Second, the loin can be fabricated into individual subprimals, creating the beef tenderloin and striploin separately; these are often the marquee steaks on the menu, demanding the highest prices.

Often the tenderloin is removed whole to be sold as a roast or sliced into medallions, the famous filet mignon.
Beef loin

Feedlot system

A feedlot is a fenced or closed area where animals are fattened for market. More precisely, it’s a livestock management system where grazing animals are confined to an area that produces no feed, and are then fed on stored feeds.

In Americas and Australia, the main system of finishing cattle is through feedlots, which are confined areas on which cattle are fed mechanically, or occasionally by hand, in their final stages of growth before slaughter for meat.

The feedlots usually finish the store cattle intensively over a 2-6 month period, depending on the growth potential of the cattle and market requirements.

The beef feedlots in industry in Brazil has consolidated in the last decade as an option for finishing cattle because of the increasing demand from export markets.

The number of animals finished in feedlots in Brazil increased 50% during 2000s with most of the beef produced in destined for external markets.

The feedlot systems has other names: Intensive Livestock Operation (ILO),   Confined Feeding Operation (a term used in Canada), or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO).

The location, design and construction of a feedlot and/or a feed pad should take account of topography, climate, age and size or animals to be fed, space and feed requirements and labor and management skills available.
Feedlot system

Character of Beef Industry

Character of Beef Industry
The cattle feeding industry in United States has shift in recent years from its formerly heavy concentration in the Cornbelt to the central and Southern Plains states.

Most of the high capacity feedlots are found in Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado. There is a trend toward custom feeding cattle in large feedlots, with cow calf operators retaining ownership of the cattle.

Other changes occurring in the beef industry include:

• Efforts to lower unit production cost
• Development of closer coordination of breeding, growing, feeding, marketing and processing operations, generally through, contracts rather than through the vertical integration that is found in the poultry industry.
• Greater quality control in production in an effort to reduce the amount of fat in beef and produce carcasses with the characteristics in demand in the marketplace.
• A growing interest in the concept of Integrated Resource Management to increase net income by making the most efficient use of all available resources.

Raising beef has the following advantages:

• Beef use roughages that otherwise would be wasted for feed
• Labor requirements may be low
• Capital investment can be small
• Death losses are usually low
• Beef are adapted for use un small operations as well as large ones
• There is high demand for most

Disadvantages of rising beef include the following factors:

• Cattle feeding is a high risk business
• Cattle are not efficient converters of concentrated feeds into meat.
• It takes longer to develop a cattle herd and increase numbers than it does to develop hogs or sheep.
• The capital investment in modern, efficient operations can be high

Character of Beef Industry

Carcass Beef

Carcass Beef
The age of the animal and the apparent sex designation when the animal is slaughtered determines the class of the beef carcass.

The five beef carcass classes are:
Steer
Bullock
Bull
Heifer
Cow

The quality and yield grades for carcass beef are the same as those for live slaughter cattle. The amount of marbling in the carcass affects the quality grade of the carcass.

Marbling refers to the presence and distribution of fat and lean in a cut of meat.

The yield grade of a beef carcass is influenced by carcass weight, rib eye area, thickness of fat over rib eye area and the amount of kidney, pelvic and heart fat.

A preliminary yield grade for a warm beef carcass is determined by the thickness of fat over the rib eye.

Each 0.25 cm of fat thickness changes the yield grade by 0.25 of a yield grade. An adjustment is then made for rib eye area and percent of kidney, pelvic, and heart fat to determine the final yield grade.

An increase in the amount of these fats decreases the percent of retail cuts from the carcass. Each change of 1 percent of the carcass weight attributed to these fats causes a 0.2 change in the yield grade.

The higher grades of slaughter beef are usually grain-fed animals that have a high yield of lean cuts with the right amount of marbling.

These animals bring higher prices in the market.
Carcass Beef

Ground beef

Ground beef is designated on the label as being derived from a particular cut of meat then the product must consist of beef derived entirely from the cut so identified.

Most ground beef is ground and packaged in local stores rather than in food processing plants under USDA inspection federal labeling laws on fat content apply.

Wide range of choice available: lean, extra-lean, ground round, ground sirloin and ground chuck. Ground beef that is 75% lean can be cooked, drained, and best used in sides, soups, sloppy joes, barbequed sandwiches and pizzas.

Ground beef that is 85% lean or higher can be used for meat loaves, meatballs, and hamburgers.

The amount of fat in ground beef affects the moistness and texture of the cooked food. A chuck burger will be the juiciest but will shrink a good deal as the fat melts away.

Ground round will make a firmer burger that is still quite juicy, and sirloin will make a burger that has lots of beef flavor but is fairly dry and crumbly.

The leanest ground beef commonly available 95% lean ground beef has only 4.9 grams of fat per 3 ounce cooked serving and contains 5% fat by weight.

Ground beef is rich in protein. When teamed with cheese and beans it provides the body with its daily allowance of protein. Lean ground beef is also good for low calories diets.
Ground beef

Bacterial contamination of beef meat

The primary contamination of the meat surface of healthy animals is decisively influenced by the abattoir environment and the condition of the animal.

Varying levels of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria constitute the initial microbial population.

Bacterial presence is limited almost exclusively to the exterior surface of carcasses unless the surface has been penetrated by utensils allowing transport of bacteria to interior muscle tissues.

The hides of cattle are loaded with bacteria. The intestinal tract of cattle is also loaded with bacteria. Bacteria from intestinal tract may come in contact with the carcass surface if the intestinal tract is rupture during evisceration.

Also, feces during slaughter and rumen contents spilled through the esophagus may additional sources of contamination.

The important spoilage bacteria of fresh meat include Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter/Moraxella, Aeromonas, Alteromonas putrefaciens, Lactobacillus and Brochothrix thermosphacta.

The major end products of metabolism of common meat spoilage organisms are sulfides, amines, acetic acid, lactic acid, isovaleric acid, isobutyric acid, esters and nitriles.
Bacterial contamination of beef meat

Amino acids in beef

Beef is considered by many people to be preferred food in the diet. The protein in beef is complete and high quality.

Evaluation of the amino acid composition of meat protein shows that beef is an excellent source of all of the amino acids required by man.

Beef can supply all the essential amino acids the body needs to build, maintain and repair body tissue and muscle, form hormones and enzymes and increase resistance of infection and disease.

In respect of the essential amino acids, beef would appear to have a somewhat higher content of leucine, lysine and valine than pork or lamb and a lower content of threonine.

The study also shows that amino acids in beef are not destroyed during cooking.

Beef protein in amounts as great as 55% of the diet will not raise cholesterol levels in normal men.

The real danger of high protein, high meats diet is that they are frequently accompanied by a high consumption of refined carbohydrates.

Different proteins are composed of varying concentration of different amino acids, so a blend of proteins sources, if chosen wisely, provides an even distribution and concentration of the amino acids necessary for optimal growth.

Amino acids in beef

Growth Hormones in Beef

Growth Hormones in Beef
Besides pesticides, there are many drugs used in agriculture that are controversial. These drugs, like pesticides, help increase yields.

Since the 1950s, growth hormones have been used to increase meat production. Three naturally occurring hormones – estridiol, progesterone and testosterone p and their synthetic equivalents - zeranol, melengestrol acetate and trenbolone – are injected into calves’ ears as time-release pellets.

This implant under the skin causes the steers to gain an extra two to three pounds per week and saves up to $40 per steer in production cost because the steers gain more weight with same amount of feed.

The practice of using hormones in beef production is recognized as one of the most effective management tools available to increase feed efficiency and improve the rate of gain of cattle. Feed efficiency is improved from 6 to 8 percent through the use of hormones with feedlot cattle.

Two thirds of US cattle are treated with hormones, but the European Union banned the practice in 1988 and bans imported beef unless it is certified hormone free.

Is it safe for human to eat meat from cattle using growth hormones? The Codex standards on growth hormones in beef state that this is safe and allow their use as do the US and Canada.

Hormone like commercials (DDT, PCB, dioxin, etc) in large enough concentrations or at critical points in fetal development distrupt functioning of the natural hormones in both animal and human bodies.

The US government has been studying the endocrine disruptive effects of certain estrogenic pesticides and food contaminants known as xenoestrogens, but has only begun study the effects of hormones in meat and its impact for food safety and the environment. There has been escalating incidence of reproductive cancers in the United States since 1950s.
Growth Hormones in Beef