Argentine meat has been traditionally produced on pasture. However, to comply with some market requirements, grain finishing
is becoming more common among producers. The main goal of the present work was to study lipid oxidation in fresh meat from
animals fed different diets in relationship with their antioxidant vitamin status. Attributes were evaluated in beef from pasture or
grain-fed animals with (PE and GE) or without supplementation (P and G) with vitamin E (500 UI/head/day). Fresh meat produced
on grain (G and GE) had higher fat (4.0 ± 1.6 and 4.7 ± 1.4 g/100 g) and cholesterol content (51.0 ± 3.0 and 52.0 ± 4.0 mg/100 g)
than meat from pasture (P and PE) fed animals (2.7 ± 1.2 to 2.9 ± 1.1 g/100 g and 48.0 ± 5.0 to 49.0 ± 4.0 mg/100 g of intramuscular
fat and cholesterol respectively). Fatty acid composition was clearly affected by diet. Beef from pasture-fed cattle had higher percentage
of linolenic acid, less linoleic acid and, overall, higher percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids than beef from grainfed
animals (P < 0.05).