Due to its high nutritional value beef is one of the most utilized aliments in human population’s diet. It has a rich composition containing several components that are very important for the human nutrition. The influence of the muscle's type (longissimus dorsis and gluteus medius), production's condition (dry or in production) and number of lactations (1-2 or 6-7) was evaluated in the tocopherol's compositions, cholesterol and β-Carotene of meat of twenty different breeding cows from Azores Islands. Carcass weight ranged between 180-430 kg and age at slaughter between 25-142 months old. The results showed a significant influence (p<0,01) of production conditions and of muscle type in the α-tocopherol contents in Azores Beef. In case of cholesterol, the variation was significant (p<0,01) in relation of production conditions. As to β-carotene, the factor that most influenced this content in beef was muscle type. These results clearly indicate that the meat analyzed in this study has a high nutritional value with relation to the parameters

Mestrado em Engenharia Alimentar - Qualidade e Segurança Alimentar - Instituto Superior de Agronomia