Horse-meat for human consumption - Current research and future opportunities

- Horse-meat production, trade and supply, past and current
- Digestive physiology of horse affects lipid profile of equine products.
- Equine production is associated with lower methane emissions.
- Nutritional quality of horse-meat has been evaluated.
- Increased uptake of polyunsaturated fatty acids by horses improves meat quality.

The consumption of horse-meat is currently not popular in most countries, but because of its availability and recognized nutritional value consumption is slowly increasing in several western European countries based on claims that it could be an alternative red meat. In this review, horse-meat production, trade and supply values have been summarized. In addition, the advantage of horse production is noted because of its lower methane emissions and increased uptake, particularly of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which is based on its digestive physiology. Of particular interest in this review is the unique fatty acid composition of horse-meat with its high level of the nutritionally desirable PUFAs in both the adipose and muscle fat. Because of its large frame size and digestive physiology, the horse can be considered an alternative to bovine meat, with large advantages regarding the maintenance of less favored mountain grazing areas and its facility to transfer PUFA from feed to meat.