. 2021 May 9;10(5):1025. doi: 10.3390/foods10051025

Table 2.

Research on the impact of production factors, quality grade or muscle (treatments under study in bold) on the moisture, fat and protein in meat from beef raised in tropical environments.

Country	Breed or Purchased Meat	n	Sex	Age (Months)	Feed	Other	Moisture (%)	Protein (%)	IMF (%)	Ref
No Comparison
Venezuela	Brahman × (Brahman, Black Angus, Red Angus, Romosinuano or Charolais)	17	Bulls, steers	24	Pasture		75.3	20.9		[99]
Venezuela	Zebu crossbreeds, dairy crossbreeds	145	Bulls, steers, heifers	30–48	Pasture		73.9			[100,101]
Venezuela	Brahman, Zebu × Brown Swiss, Bos taurus (Angus, Limousin, Gelbvieh, Criollo Romosinuano) × Brahman	20	Bulls, steers	30–60	Pasture		73.0	22.3	2.6	[102]
Venezuela	Purchased meat	20					74.2	22.4	3.6	[103]
Mexico ²	Purchased steaks	20					73.5	19.4	1.9	[76]
Mexico ³	Purchased steaks	20					72.2	22.3	3.6	[92]
Indonesia	Simmental × Ongole						72.4	21.8	3.5	[104]

Breed
Brazil	Nellore	45	Bulls	24	Feedlot-finished		72.2	25.1 ^a	1.7	[66]
	½Nellore × ½European						73.2	23.8 ^b	2.0
	¼Nellore × ¾European						73.5	23.7 ^b	1.8
Brazil	*Bos taurus*	160	Bulls	26–40	Pasture- or concentrate-finished		73.3	19.7	5.0 ^a	[68]
	*Bos indicus*						72.7	19.8	5.7 ^b
Brazil	Nellore	18	Steers	25	Pasture-finished		74.1 ^a	23.4 ^a	2.7 ^a	[105]
	Simmental × Nellore						73.9 ^ab	23.0 ^ab	3.1 ^a
	Santa Gertrudis × Nellore						73.3 ^b	22.7 ^b	3.6 ^b
Cameroon	Goudali	50	Bulls	20–41	Pasture		76.6	20.1	0.60	[106]
	Italian Simmental × Goudali						76.0	20.5	0.76
Cameroon	Goudali	60	Bulls	36–60	Pasture		74.9	22.1 ^a	1.1	[56]
	White Fulani						75.5	21.5 ^b	1.4
	Red Mbororo						75.8	21.6 ^b	0.9
Mexico	Zebu	90	Bulls		Concentrate + forage-finished	β-adrenergic agonist used; trenbolone acetate + estradiol implants	74.1	20.3	1.7	[78]
	Zebu × Holstein						74.3	20.8	1.7
	Zebu × American Brown Swiss						74.4	20.6	1.7
	Zebu × European Brown Swiss						74.0	20.3	2.0
	Holstein						75.2	19.8	1.6
	European Brown Swiss						75.4	20.8	1.3
Mexico	Brahman	20	Bulls	18–24	Feedlot	β-adrenergic agonist used	73.7 ^a		2.9 ^a	[74]
	Charolais					β-adrenergic agonist used	75.1 ^b		2.4 ^b
Benin	Zebu Fulani	25	Bulls	60	Pasture			21.7	1.25	[58]
	Lagunaire							19.5	0.44
	Borgou							20.7	0.61

Sex
Brazil	Nellore crosses	30	Steers Imm ⁴	36	Pasture + supplement-finished		75.7	21.1	1.6 ^a	[107]
			Steers Surg				74.7	20.9	2.2 ^b
			Bulls				76.2	19.9	1.2 ^c
Brazil	Zebu × Aberdeen Angus	27	Steers	27	Pasture + supplement-finished		73.1 ^a	23.8 ^a	2.0 ^a	[108]
			Bulls				76.2 ^b	22.9 ^b	1.0 ^b
Venezuela	Brahman	34	Steers	19, 24	Pasture				2.1 ^a	[109]
			Bulls						1.8 ^b

Age
Brazil	Nellore	60	Steers	20–24			72.3 ^a		4.2 ^a	[67]
				30–36			71.9 ^ab		5.0 ^ab
				42–48			71.0 ^b		5.7 ^b
India	Kangayam	12		12–18			76.1 ^a	20.7 ^a	2.1 ^a	[110]
				>36			74.0 ^b	22.0 ^b	2.9 ^b
Puerto Rico	Non-specified “typical” breeds	105	Male, female	≤30	Pasture		74.6	20.1	1.9 ^a	[77]
				≥36			73.8	20.6	2.7 ^b
Venezuela	Brahman	34	Bulls, steers	19	Pasture				1.4	[109]
				24					2.0

Feed
Brazil	Bos indicus, Bos Taurus	160	Bulls	26–40	Pasture-finished		73.8 ^a	21.4 ^a	3.0 ^a	[68]
					Concentrate-finished		72.2 ^b	18.2 ^b	7.7 ^b
Brazil	Nellore	60	Bulls	22	No glycerin in dry feed				2.5	[83]
					Glycerin + corn				3.0
					Glycerin + soybean hulls				2.9
Brazil	Nellore	30	Bulls	22	No glycerin in dry feed		76.3	21.8	2.1	[82]
					7.5% glycerin		75.1	22.1	2.5
					15% glycerin		76.0	21.2	2.3
					22.5% glycerin		75.	22.4	2.3
					30% glycerin		75.8	21.8	1.9
Venezuela	Brahman, Angus, Romosinuano, Senepol, Simmental, commercial zebu crosses	89	Bulls, steers		Pasture	Implants (Ralgro, Revalor)	73.9 ^a	21.4		[96,111]
					Pasture + supplement	Implants (Ralgro, Revalor)	74.2 ^b	21.7
Venezuela	Criollo Limonero	23	Steers	36	Pasture	-	71.9	22.4	2.9	[112,113]
					Pasture + concentrate		71.5	22.9	3.1
					Pasture + legume		72.2	22.3	3.1
Mexico	“Multi-racial”	80	Steers	22–38	Pasture + supplement		71.6 ^a	21.3	5.6 ^a	[98]
					Feedlot		67.3 ^b	22.7	8.9 ^b
Mexico	¾ Zebu, ¾ Bos taurus (Holstein crosses)	52	Steers		Pasture-finished		71.3	20.8	2.3	[114]
					Feedlot-finished		73.8	22.2	2.2

Other: Fat Class (F), Carcass Grade (C), Muscle (M), Implants (I)
Brazil	Nellore	60	Steers			F: Slight	72.3 ^a		4.2 ^a	[67]
						F: Medium	71.1 ^b		5.7 ^b
Venezuela	Angus, ¾ Brahman (n = 18); purchased meat (n = 40)	58	Steers		Pasture + supplement-finished	C ⁵: BF A	74.4	20.5	3.5	[115,116]
	Angus, ¾ Brahman (n = 18); purchased meat (n = 40)					C: BF AA	74.3	20.4	4.0
						C: LD A	74.7	21.9	2.0
						C: LD AA	74.0	21.5	3.0
Venezuela	Brahman, Angus, Romosinuano, Senepol, Simmental, commercial zebu crosses	77	Bulls		Pasture ± supplement	I ⁶: Ral-Ral	60.0	35.5	3.6 ^a	[96]
						I: Rev-Ral	59.4	35.9
Venezuela	Brahman, Angus, Romosinuano, Senepol, Simmental, commercial zebu crosses	89	Bulls, steers		Pasture ± supplement	I ⁷: Ral-Ral			1.3 ^a	[111]
						I: Rev-Ral			1.4 ^b

Breed × Production System Interaction
Brazil	Nellore	134	Bulls	23.5, 27.5	Feedlot-finished				2.7 ^a	[117]
	Simmental × Nellore				Feedlot-finished				2.1 ^b
	Nellore				Pasture-finished				1.3 ^c
	Simmental × Nellore				Pasture-finished				1.6 ^c

¹ Moisture, protein or fat content means in a given study with differing superscripts (down a column) are significantly different (p ≤ 0.05). ² Veracruz data only. ³ Villahermosa data only. ⁴ Chemical (Imm) or surgical (Surg) castration. ⁵ Biceps femoris (BF) or longissimus dorsi (LD) and Venezuelan carcass grade AA or A. ⁶ Ralgro (Ral) implants consisting of zeranol, an anabolic agent; Revalor (Rev) implants consisting of the anabolic steroid trenbolone acetate and the estrogen hormone, estradiol.