In a large study, 64 German
Holstein and German Simmental bulls were randomly allocated to eitheran indoor concentrate system or periods of pasture feeding followed by a finishing period on aconcentrate containing linseed to enhance the contents of beneficial fatty acids in beef. This paperreports the diet effects on the concentration of 12-methyltridecanal (12-MT) and further fatty aldehydesreleased from plasmalogens in the phospholipids of
longissimus muscle of the bulls. Because of thetrace level of the important odorant 12-MT in beef, the determination of fatty aldehydes in phospholipidswas done by acidic hydrolysis and the reaction of the aldehydes with 2,4-DNPH followed by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. The diet affected the 12-MT concentrations in themuscle phospholipids of both breeds. Pasture feeding significantly increased the 12-MT concentrationsup to 350
g/100 g fresh muscle in the muscle phospholipids of German Holstein and GermanSimmental bulls as compared with the concentrate-fed bulls. Furthermore, pasture feeding resultedin a significant increase of
n-octadecanal in the muscle phospholipids of both breeds up to 39.5mg/100 g fresh muscle. The concentration of
n-hexadecanal was not affected by the diet. Pasturefeeding as compared to concentrate feeding significantly decreased the concentration of
n-octadec-9-enal in the muscle phospholipids. Summarizing, pasture feeding increased the 12-MT concentration,which can be associated with meat of more intensive aroma and better taste.Keywords: Fatty aldehydes; plasmalogens; phospholipids; 12-methyltridecanal; beef; pasture; HPLC;dinitrophenylhydrazones