Beef Tenderness Improvement by Dietary Vitamin D(3) Supplementation in the Last Stage of Fattening of Cattle

Tenderness is the most important characteristic of meat, determining consumer approval. There are numerous methods of its improvement, although of diverse effectiveness. addition of vitamin D(3) to the feed for a short period before slaughter (7–10 days) is one of the natural ways to enhance the tenderness. Vitamin D(3) is responsible for Ca(2+) mobilisation in serum and increase in activity of proteolytic enzymes belonging to calpains, which results in significant improvement of beef tenderness and reduction of ageing time. The use of vitamin D(3) is an application tool determining tenderness improvement of beef with substantial reduction in processing costs. Moreover, shorter post mortem ageing process will exceed the retail display time, which will consequently reduce losses due to unsold meat being returned from shops to the manufacturers. Based on the results of studies conducted over the last 15 years, this paper presents the possibility and the effects of the use of vitamin D(3) to improve beef tenderness.