Factors influencing proportion and composition of CLA in beef

Bovine meat is criticised for the bad nutritional image of its lipids and fatty acids. However, with dairy products, beef is the major source of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which could have several human health benefits. The present study compared, from data of five nutritional experiments on bovine animals performed by the laboratory, the impact of factors linked to the animals (breed, age, sex, type of muscle) and to feeding conditions (basal diet, lipid supplements) on the CLA proportion and composition in muscles. Among these factors, linseed supplementation was an efficient way to increase CLA proportion in beef (+22% to +36%) but was highly modulated by the nature of the basal diet, and by intrinsic factors (breed, age/sex, type of muscle) since these ones could modulate CLA proportion in beef from 24% to 47%. Moreover, these factors modified also the proportion of cis,trans-CLA, related to cis,cis- and trans,trans-isomers. Specific biological properties of these latter isomers should be determine to understand the consequences of intramuscular CLA isomer variations for the health of consumers.