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The fatty acid content of organic and conventional raw and ultra‐high temperature (UHT) milk collected in Inner Mongolia, China was determined by gas chromatography. The results showed seasonal variation of the fatty acid content in milk. The fatty acid content of raw milk was significantly affected by the conventional and organic systems, by which 97.8% of the samples were correctly classified through linear discriminant analysis as from an organic or conventional milking system. A clear difference was observed in the fatty acid profiles of organic and conventional UHT milk of the same brand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nutritional components, especially minerals of Hulunbuir grassland short-tailed sheep's viscera and muscle lack systematic detection and evaluation. To complement this deficiency, a total of 162 samples were collected from the heart, lung, liver, kidney, rumen, reticulum, omasum, small intestine and longissimus dorsi of grassland short-tailed sheep, and 26 mineral elements were determined. Principal component analysis (PCA), traditional descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were used to compare the mineral element characteristics of viscera and longissimus dorsi. PCA result showed that the mineral characteristics of the viscera and longissimus dorsi were obviously different. There was a significant positive correlation between the contents of Co and Mo, and between Se and Cd in viscera (p < 0.01). The contents of Zn (3.27 ± 0.3 mg/100 g), Fe (12.9 ± 3.5 mg/100 g), Cu (3.32 ± 1.7 mg/100 g), Mo (101 ± 21 μ g/100 g) and Co (4.90 ± 0.8 μ g/100 g) in liver, Se (50.4 ± 25 μ g/100 g) in kidney and Ca (80.7 ± 50 mg/100 g) and Mn (458 ± 270 μ g/100 g) in omasum were significantly higher than those in other viscera. The contents of Zn (3.36 ± 1.3 mg/100 g) and Cu (6.24 ± 1.8 mg/100 g) in longissimus dorsi were significantly higher than other viscera. The heavy metals in all viscera did not exceed the limits for livestock viscera set by the national food safety standards. The overall mineral characteristics of the same viscera were different among different months of age. • The mineral characteristics of viscera and muscle of sheep were obviously different. • Selenium content in sheep kidney accorded with selenium-enriched food standard. • The mineral characteristics of sheep viscera of different age were different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traceability of mineral element fingerprints to mutton in a small area of China was studied. The element data of 104 sheep and 24 goat samples from Inner Mongolia were measured, and the data were analyzed by multivariate statistical analysis from different origins, species and feeding patterns. The results shows that 11 elements (Mg, Al, K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Rb, Sr, Ba) in sheep meat had significant differences between different regions (P < 0.05), and the results of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) showed that the accuracy of the original classification rate was 95.2%, and the cross-validation rate was 85.9%. Goat meat and sheep meat samples from Alxa League were also clearly identified with LDA results showing that the cross-validation accuracy of the two species was 70.2%. Then the feeding patterns of sheep meat were effectively classified. The results showed that the multi-element analysis has certain potential as a method to distinguish mutton in a small area. • Mutton from different origins in Inner Mongolia of China were effectively identified. • It is feasible to trace the source of mutton in a small area by using elements. • Sheep meat in four regions was distinguished by elements. • Different feeding patterns of sheep were distinguished by elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]