The objective of this work was to characterizethe intramuscular fat of short loin, ramp loin and rib and six commercial brands(A, B, C, D, E and F) of beef commercialized in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande doSul. Samples were collected from a supermarket chain. The brands A and B wereassociated with British animals breeds, the brands C and D were from Europeananimals breeds produced in conventional and organic system, respectively, fromUruguay, while the brands E and F were derived from non specific breed and unidentifiedfeeding system, obtained in a slaughterhouse and a regional chain of supermarkets,respectively. The samples were deboned, ground, vacuum packed and stored incooling temperature until the moment of analysis. In each sample were extractedlipids and fatty acids were identified. The experimental design was a completelyrandomized, with a 6 × 3 factorial arrangement and analyzed by the GLMprocedure of SAS computing application. Regarding lipid profile no significantinteraction were found among cuts and brands of commercial cuts. The lipid percentagewas 0.95; 3.01 and 0.97% in short loin, ribs and ramp loin cuts. Rib presentedthe greatest percentage of saturated fatty acids (FA) and the greatest estimateof D9 desaturase from C16:0 and C18:0. The highest percentage ofC18:2 cis-9, trans 11, conjugated linoleic acid, CLA, n-6 and n-3 was foundin ramp loin. Brand F showed a higher degree of saturation, while the brandD showed higher polyunsaturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated/saturated ratioand trans18 and the lowest saturated fatty acids. There was a significant interactionbetween cuts and brands for the content of CLA, with the highest content foundin the short loin of brand F. The characteristics of intramuscular beef fatdepending on the cuts and the commercial brands.
