yellow fat

[svrn]

I hear that the good kind of beef has yellow fat. I get grassfed beef all the time but have only ever had white fat. What factors contribute to the fat being yellow?

[CitrusHigh]

Probably the inability of certain breeds to utilize beta-carotene. This is why guernsey milk is gold while holestein is very white.

[Löwenherz]

I hear that the good kind of beef has yellow fat. I get grassfed beef all the time but have only ever had white fat. What factors contribute to the fat being yellow?

It's the breed.

Therefore white fat doesn't always mean bad fat.

Löwenherz

[eveheart]

My grass-fed beef comes from a ranch cooperative, all the beef from them has yellow-ish back fat. The suet is less distinctly yellow, but when rendered, it is yellowish, too. Sometimes my butcher puts the grass-fed cuts in his regular beef section, and I can always see the difference. FWIW, they say their breeds are Hereford, angus, and shorthorn.

[van]

It does have to do with the breed and sex (older females will have darker yellowing) but it's also really the depth of the green that they're eating.    When it's golden or even darker yellow,  my body craves it.   I also believe that's when the omega threes are at their highest levels, just as in Salmon, when they eat green chlorophyl rich plankton their fat is loaded with omega threes.  Same with chickens and their eggs, and dairy animals and their milk/butter....   It's all in the amount of chlorophyl.  Any grazing animal will seek out the darker material.