The objective of this study was to test the potential of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) to estimate the proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids (FA) and their biohydrogenation products in perirenal adipose tissue (PrFat) from cattle fed sunflower or flaxseed. PrFat from 63 steers was collected immediately after skinning, scanned at 37 °C over a NIR spectral range from 400 to 2498 nm on benchtop equipment, and analysed for FA composition. NIR calibrations, tested by cross-validation, showed high predictability for most of the total n-3, conjugated linolenic acids, t,t-conjugated linoleic acids (CLA), non-CLA dienes and trans-monounsaturated FA, with R2 and root mean square error of crossvalidation (RMSECV, %) of 0.95 (0.07-0.08), 0.86- 0.89 (0.01-0.09), 0.93 (0.07), 0.89 (0.46) and 0.92-0.93 (0.87-1.29), respectively. The results show NIRS to be a useful technique for the early, fast and relatively inexpensive estimation of proportion of FA with potential human health effects.

4 páginas, 2 tablas.- Trabajo presentado al 58th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology (Montreal, Canadá, Aug. 12-17, 2012).

Peer reviewed