Research conducted by a science team headed up by Dr. Stephan Van Vliet had a goal of performing deep metabolic and nutritional profiling of grass-fed beef samples submitted by farms in various regions of the U.S.  Nutritional profiling included fatty acids, amino acids, phytochemicals, vitamins, and oxidative stress markers.  To fully understand the contributions of soil health parameters, plant species diversity, and the actual absorption of nutrients in the animal’s gut, researchers collected and analyzed soil, plant and animal fecal data.  Additionally, beef samples were analyzed for their complete nutritional profile.  This data provided significant insight into the nutritional composition of meat and the metabolic health of the animals.

The data is benchmarked against the average values for typical feedlot grain-fed beef samples. The grain-fed beef samples were collected from feedlots in the Nutrient Density Project database.