Comparative study on fatty acid profiles of Longissimus thoracis across different marbling scores (7, 8, and 9) within 1++ grade Hanwoo steers

Woo, Minkyung; Jin, Shil; Do, Hanwool; Won, Jeong Il; Kang, Sung-Sik; Son, Jun Kyu; Jung, samooel

doi:10.5851/fl.2600010

Food Life

eISSN: 2714-0865

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5851/fl.2600010

Research Article

Comparative study on fatty acid profiles of Longissimus thoracis across different marbling scores (7, 8, and 9) within 1++ grade Hanwoo steers

Minkyung Woo¹, Shil Jin², Hanwool Do², Jeong Il Won², Sung-Sik Kang², Jun Kyu Son², samooel Jung¹^,^*

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea.

²National Institute of Aniaml Science, Pyeongchang 25340, Korea.

^*Corresponding Author: samooel Jung, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea, Republic of. E-mail: samooel@cnu.ac.kr.

© Copyright 2026 Korean Society for Food Science of Animal Resources. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: May 11, 2026; Revised: Jun 29, 2026; Accepted: Jul 24, 2026

Published Online: Sep 14, 2026

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of marbling score (MS) variations within Hanwoo quality grade 1⁺⁺ on the appearance and fatty acid composition of the Longissimus thoracis muscle. A total of 110 samples were categorized into three groups: MS 7 (n=34), MS 8 (n=30), and MS 9 (n=46). Meat color analysis revealed no significant differences in redness (a*) and yellowness (b*) among the groups (P > 0.05); however, lightness (L*) was significantly higher in the MS 8 and MS 9 groups than in the MS 7 group (P < 0.05). Regarding fatty acid composition, myristic acid (C14:0) content increased significantly as the MS increased from 7 to 9 (P < 0.05). Conversely, the proportions of linoleic acid (C18:2, n-6), dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (C20:3, n-6), and arachidonic acid (C20:4, n-6) were significantly lower in the MS 9 group than in the MS 7 group (P <0.05). Despite these variations, the Atherogenic Index (AI) and Thrombogenic Index (TI) did not differ significantly among the groups (P > 0.05). These results imply that even within the same 1⁺⁺ grade, the appearance and nutritional properties of Hanwoo beef vary according to the MS.

Keywords: Hanwoo; beef; marbling score; fatty acid profile