3/17/97

Contacts:
F.C. Parrish, Animal Science, (515) 294-3280
Susan Anderson, Agriculture Information, (515) 294-0705

ISU CHOLESTEROL TESTING YIELDS IMPROVED METHOD, NEW NUMBERS

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Cholesterol levels are of great interest to consumers. A group of Iowa State University researchers developed a more accurate method for measuring cholesterol, while at the same time producing new information on cholesterol levels in meat products.

In the past, the standard method for measuring cholesterol involved applying a dye that attached itself to cholesterol. But the lead researcher on the ISU project, F.C. Parrish, says this method also applied the dye to "cousins" of cholesterol.

"The result was that cholesterol levels were generally inflated by 10 to 20 percent," Parrish says. He presented results of the research at the Midwest meetings of the American Society of Animal Science and American Dairy Science Association, March 17-19.

Parrish's group decided to use gas chromatography to analyze cholesterol content, and then mass spectrometry to confirm those results. "This allowed us to accurately determine cholesterol levels," he says. Parrish says this combination of testing procedures has now been accepted by the meats industry across the U.S.

The study was funded by the Iowa Beef Industry Council. "The meat industry has been pushing for more accurate methods of determining cholesterol levels," Parrish says. In addition, the industry wanted new information on cholesterol contents of various meat cuts.

"There has been a range war underway, with different segments of the meat industry pitting their products against the others," he says. "But our cholesterol work showed that while a few cuts came in at the bottom and at the top, the majority of the meat products we tested fell in the middle."

Ten samples each of both fresh and cooked beef, pork and poultry retail products were tested. For fresh samples, 70 percent ground beef and 90 percent ground turkey showed the highest cholesterol content. Pork chops and skinless turkey tenderloins had the lowest amount of cholesterol, but the values were not significantly different from top butt, strip loin and eye of round beef steaks, or center ham slices.

For cooked products, the skinless chicken thigh was significantly higher in cholesterol and the turkey tenderloin was significantly lower. All the other cooked beef and pork products were similar in cholesterol content.

Parrish says he was the most surprised by the high cholesterol level in the skinless chicken thigh. "We generally think of chicken as being low in cholesterol. Raw chicken thigh meat has about 70 mg of cholesterol per 100 grams. But cooking almost doubled that level."

Parrish says now that the meat industry is required to provide cholesterol content on nutrition labels, it's important to provide the most accurate information possible. He added that this study showed there just isn't much difference in the cholesterol levels of most meat products. "People who want to control their cholesterol intake probably need to think more about portion control," he says.

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