Corn-o-phobia

If you prefer grass-finished beef, but worry that despite the label, there might be some kernels of grain in the dietary history of that high-priced cut, a group of Irish scientists has you covered.

ScienceDaily this week reports on research recently in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, using “stable isotope ratio analysis” on beef to determine the composition of feed the animal consumed for a year or more prior to slaughter.

The researchers collected muscle and tail hair samples from animals fed either pasture, a barley-based concentrate, silage followed by pasture, or silage followed by pasture with concentrate for one year. They report that certain isotope ratios in muscle clearly reflected those of the diets consumed by the animals. Isotope ratios in tail hair sections provided an archival record of changes to the diet of the cattle for periods of over one year pre-slaughter.

Quoted in the article, researcher Frank J. Monahan says these analyses “provide a powerful tool to reconstruct changes in feed components offered to animals over periods of over a year and thus a tool to verify farm production practices."

I suppose tests of this type have a place, perhaps helping assure truth in advertizing, and preventing producers of grass-fed beef from speeding their cattle’s growth by sneaking some concentrate into the rations. But I do find myself wondering how much these tests would cost, and add to the price of already-expensive products.

I also can’t help imagining the discriminating Whole Foods shopper approaching the butcher to ask: “Your label says this beef is grass-finished, but has that been verified through stable isotope ratio analysis?