Host Institution

Chewing the fat: Complex beef lipids for metabolic health Dr Emma Bermingham AgResearch

The future of NZ food exports • Commodity vs. added-value • Meat industry

“Grow the NZ red meat sector to reach a nominal annual export value of NZ$14 billion by 2025”

Sources: Red Meat sector strategy report (2011); http://portal.beeflambnz.com/tools/export-tool/; Beef+Lamb New Zealand Economic Service

Sheep + cattle numbers are decreasing Meat exports were NZ$6 billion last year

Oct-Feb

Mar-Sept

Who will consumers of red meat be? • Who are our consumers?

– Who can – and will – pay more? – What will they pay a premium for?

• Attributes of ‘niche’ consumers – “Provenance”/Environmental – Health

Source: KPMG Agribusiness Agenda (2013) Volume 3 “Evolving a truly consumer-centric industry”

What is red meat?

Source: Knowles et al 2004 NZ Vet J 52, 342, Beef+Lamb NZ, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

It is more than just an iron source…

The “Ironmaidens”

It is more than a cancer scare…

A serving of meat gives you…

…Chewing the fat…about fat…

Good vs bad fats? Saturated Unsaturated

Omega-3 Omega-6

The fat-fad

Ancel Keys – Father of Lipid Hypothesis

1961

The war on Fat & Cholesterol goes

global 1984

Acknowledging they got it WRONG

2014

Grass vs Grain Complex lipids

The grass-fed story

Source: Daley et al 2010 Nutr J 9, 10

• Grass-fed meat has higher – Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) (C18:2) isomers – Trans vaccenic acid (TVA) (C18:1 t11) [a precursor to CLA]

– Long-chain omega-3 (n-3; DHA, EPA) – Stearic fatty acid (C18:0) [cholesterol neutral fatty acid]

• Grass-fed meat has lower – Myristic (C14:0) [cholesterol elevating fatty acid]

– Palmitic (C16:0) [cholesterol elevating fatty acid]

• Complex lipids?

What are complex lipids? Bioactive lipids/Polar lipids/Phospholipids

• Two main groups: – Glycerophospholipids

• Phosphatidylcholine (PC) • Phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) • Phosphatidylinositol (PI) • Phosphatidylserine (PS)

– Sphingolipids • Sphingomyelin (SM)

• Membrane-bound – Plants/animal products

Health benefits of complex lipids • Fatty acids vs. complex lipids?

– n-3 PUFA as phospholipids are more effective at “preserving a healthy metabolic profile”

• Reduce cholesterol absorption – Rodents – Humans (3+ g complex lipids/day)

• Dietary source of complex lipids may be important

– Milk – Eggs – Meat?

Sources: Rossmeisl et al 2012 PlosONe 7, e38834; Noh & Koo 2003 J Nutr 133, 3571; Kellet er al 2013 Eur J Nutr 2013 52, 1169

Red meat contains complex lipids The health impacts of

these lipids are unknown

Subbaraj, Fraser & Bermingham, unpublished

Lipid class

Mea

t sam

ple

COMPLEX LIPIDS FOR ENHANCED METABOLIC HEALTH

The Opportunity • Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death -

consumers are aware of the importance of the diet in reducing CVD risk

• Cholesterol absorption is a known risk factor in CVD

• Milk and egg complex lipids reduce cholesterol absorption

– An opportunity for red meat?

To show a reduction of cholesterol absorption in consumers who eat meat-derived complex lipids

• Assess the distribution of complex lipids in Wagyu beef

• Design a ‘healthy hamburger’ prototype containing extracted complex lipids

• Conduct a clinical study with our ‘healthy hamburger’ – Blood cholesterol levels – Cholesterol absorption

• Draft dossier for high-level health claims

The Research Hypothesis: “that complex lipids extracted from grass-

fed beef reduce cholesterol absorption.”

• Demonstrate health benefits of consuming food product with complex lipids extracted from NZ grass-fed Wagyu

• Support Firstlight Foods to submit a dossier for a high-level health claim and meet NZ and in-market regulations

• Contribute towards Firstlight Foods mission:

The Outcomes

“to be the home of the best grass-fed meat in the world”

CL PE

PI

PC

SPL

Research progress to date

Aim: to understand the location and concentration of complex lipids throughout the Wagyu carcass

Lipid profiling of NZ meat

Progress: Working with FirstLight to understand where we can add value • Selected animals & tissues for analysis • Chemical composition planned (May-July 2016)

Drs Bermingham, Craigie, Fraser & Subbaraj

Gerald Hickey, Jason Ross, Matt Crowther

Prof David Cameron Smith

The team