The cholesterol content (mg/100 g wet tissue) of the longissimus dorsi muscle and the subcutaneous adipose tissue of "Country Natural Beef" and regularly produced beef was determined by a spectrophotometric method. Proximate analysis (moisture, fat and protein contents) of both types of beef was also determined. Country Natural Beef (natural beef) is produced without the use of hormones or antibiotic feed additives and with a feedlot-finishing period of 50-85 days versus 120-150 days for the regularly produced beef. Samples of natural beef were taken from the 12th rib of the right side of each carcass (N = 20) at 48 hr post mortem. They were vacuum packaged, frozen and stored at -20°C until analyzed. An equal number of regular beef (control) samples were obtained from a local food market. The proximate analysis results show that the mean moisture and protein contents of the natural beef muscle (74.15% and 22.31%, respectively) were significantly (P<0.001 and P<0.01, respectively) higher than those of the control (71.56% and 21.02%, respectively). Conversely, the mean muscle fat content of the natural beef (2.92%) was significantly (P<0.01) lower than that of the control (6.19%). For the adipose tissue, both moisture and fat contents of the natural beef (11.21% and 83.40%, respectively) were lower, but not significantly (P>0.05), than those of the control beef (12.57% and 84.76%, respectively). Data of this study show that the difference between mean muscle cholesterol content of the natural beef (56.91 mg/100 g) and the control beef (56.49 mg/100 g) was not statistically significant (P>0.05). However, the cholesterol content of the adipose tissue of the natural beef (106.75 mg/100 g) was significantly (P<0.01) lower than that of the control beef (113.08 mg/100 g). The adipose tissue was found to contain nearly twice as much cholesterol as the muscle tissue (overall mean values of 109.9 and 56.7 mg/100 g, respectively). Even though the natural beef had an average intramuscular fat content of 3% versus 6% for the control beef, the mean cholesterol content of the natural beef muscle was almost identical to that for the control. Although a reduction of feedlot-finishing days reduced the intramuscular fat deposition in the natural beef, it did not influence muscle cholesterol content. / Graduation date: 1988

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