Bite Into Beef: Grass-Fed or Grain-Fed?

Overview

Objectives/Goals My objective was to assess subjects' preferences of grass-fed or grain-fed beef. Methods/Materials I Conducted blind taste tests with identically prepared grass-fed and grain-fed beef and documented my results. I repeated the test 3 different times using different subjects. After my third taste test, subjects were asked to complete a survey on cattle husbandry preferences. Results Subjects preferred grass-fed beef to grain-fed beef 2 to 1. In the written survey, i found that subjects did not think they had a preference, but the taste test concluded that 90% did. 80% from that sample preferred grass-fed. I found that almost all subjects think the welfare of food animals is important, cows should live on pasture and eat grass and they do not want antibiotics in their meat. Conclusions/Discussion My hypothesis was that subjects would prefer grain-fed beef because it is what most people are used to, it is cheaper and has a higher fat content. The higher fat content is reported to make the beef tastier. My hypothesis was not supported, but I did find out people's preferences. I'm interested in the environmental and health impacts of both types of beef. Information is conflicting depending on the industry consulted. Only 3% of beef sales comprise grass-fed, while almost 70% of those tested preferred grass-fed over grain-fed in my taste tests.

Competition history

• CSEF 2015 Product Science (Biological) (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1916

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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