Beef Nutritional Characteristics, Fat Profile and Blood Metabolic Markers from Purebred Wagyu, Crossbred Wagyu and Crossbred European Steers Raised on a Fattening Farm in Spain

A high intramuscular fat content characterizes Wagyu (WY) cattle breed. Our objective was to compare beef from WY, WY-by-Angus, or Wangus (WN) steers with European, Angus-by-Charolais-Limousine crossbred steers (ACL), considering metabolic biomarkers pre-slaughtering and nutritional characteristics, including health-related indexes of the lipid fraction. The fattening system with olein-rich diets and no exercise restriction included 82 steers, 24 WY, 29 WN, and 29 ACL. The slaughter ages and weights were (median and interquartile range) 38.4 mo.-old (34.9–40.3 mo.) and 840 kg (785–895 kg) for WY; for WN, 30.6 mo. (26.9–36.5 mo.) and 832 kg (802–875 kg), and for ACL steers, 20.3 mo.-old (19.0–22.7 mo.) and 780 kg (715–852 kg). Blood lipid-related metabolites, except for non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and low-density level cholesterol (LDL), were higher in WY and WN than in ACL, while glucose was lower in WY and WN. Leptin was higher in WN than in ACL. Pre-slaughtering values of plasma HDL underscored as a possible metabolic biomarker directly related to beef quality. The amino-acid content in beef did not differ among experimental groups, except for more crude protein in ACL. Compared to ACL, WY steers showed higher intramuscular fat in sirloin (51.5 vs. 21.9%) and entrecote (59.6 vs. 27.6%), more unsaturated fatty acids in entrecote (55.8 vs. 53.0%), and more oleic acid in sirloin (46 vs. 41.3%) and entrecote (47.5 vs. 43.3%). Compared to ACL entrecote, WY and WN showed better atherogenic (0.6 and 0.55 vs. 0.69), thrombogenicity (0.82 and 0.92 vs. 1.1), and hypocholesterolemic/hypercholesterolemic index (1.9 and 2.1 vs. 1.7). Therefore, beef’s nutritional characteristics depend on breed/crossbred, slaughtering age and cut, with WY and WN entrecote samples showing a healthier lipid fraction.