Venison is top for waist and taste

Research led by ADAS, sponsored by Defra and the Scottish Government through the Sustainable Livestock Production LINK Programme, has found that venison not only contains significantly less fat than other red meats, but also comes up trumps in taste tests: great news for the British deer industry.

The research into "e;Improved Venison Quality"e;, led by ADAS with the University of Bristol, and with industry contributions from BDFA, Elmhirst Farmers, Holme Farmed Venison, Waitrose Ltd and the Humane Slaughter Association, considered the taste and health properties of venison against consumer perceptions.

Although venison"e;s popularity does not yet compare to other red meats, the study found that most of those who have tried it rate it "better than most meats" in terms of quality and taste and would definitely eat it again. By far the most common reason cited was its flavour, closely followed by health reasons.

And there are good reasons for eating it. Analysis of samples found that fatty acids comprised only 1.2% of the fresh loin muscle weight - one-third of that found in beef sirloin steaks, or a quarter of that found in lamb chops. A similar advantage was seen in the neutral lipids, with monounsaturated oleic acid found to be nine and eleven times higher in beef and lamb respectively.

In addition, the proportion of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids was found to be much higher than in other red meats - six times higher for linoleic acid, and between three and five times higher for linolenic acid.


Mervyn Davies, the project leader at ADAS, explains: "There is a lot of concern about obesity in Britain and a need to assess how much fat we consume in our diets. Compared to other red meats, venison has real health benefits: not only is it lower in fat, but it contains higher proportions of the polyunsaturated fatty acids that the body needs. The ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated acids is well above the desired health threshold and much higher than in beef and lamb, while the amounts of two key saturated fats are also beneficially low."

The research also found venison to be comparable to other red meats in terms of tenderness and pH value of the loin muscle - a key determinant of quality and shelf life. While venison is much browner than other red meats, the rate of discolouration over a seven-day period is not dissimilar to beef and dressing techniques are effective in keeping bacteria levels low for both abattoir and field-shot deer.

There are currently 30,000 farmed deer in the UK, producing around 10,000 carcasses or 500 tonnes of farmed venison per year with a retail value of £4m. A similar quantity is imported from countries such as New Zealand. The industry has rapidly expanded from farm gate sales in the early 1990s and several major UK supermarkets are now looking to sell the meat.

"The main reason that participants had not yet tried venison was because they simply did not know enough about it or where to buy it," said Mervyn. "There is an untapped market here. These findings are great news for Britain"e;s farmed venison industry and will help to raise its profile as a healthy, tasty alternative to other red meats."