Meat color stability affected by barley variety fed in finishing diet to beef steers

Angus crossbred steers were assigned randomly to one of four finishing diets based on corn, Chinook, Logan, or H3 barley. Steers were harvested and after a 72-h chill, carcass quality and yield grade data were collected. Beef ribs were removed from 72 carcasses for further analysis. Ribs were aged in vacuum bag at 2 °C for 14 days. After aging three adjacent steaks (3.18 cm) were removed to determine color stability, tenderness, proximate analysis and pH. Diets fed to steers had no effect on quality and yield grade or tenderness of beef steaks. Steaks from steers fed Logan barley variety were significantly less red at 10 days of storage (Hunter a* = 24.06) than steaks from steers fed the other barley varieties (Chinook a* = 26.4; H3 a* = 28.05) or corn (a* = 26.14). Identification of barley varieties that affect color stability could result in designing diets specifically for improved color and increase the use of barley as a finishing grain.