Animal product quality and environmental footprint

Animal-derived foods such as milk, meat and eggs are valuable source of nutrients in the human diet, including among others amino acids, minerals and bioactive lipids.

Animal nutrition affects food composition and environmental footprint of animal-derived foods. Various feeding strategies can be used to improve animal product quality and to reduce environmental emissions. We seek novel nutritional and genetic means for modifying food composition and enriching animal-derived food with bioactive components beneficial to health. Our long-standing work on modifying dairy cow milk fat composition by dietary means serves as an example.

Links to Pro­ject Pages

Selected Publications

Wang, B., Ormston, S., Płatosz, N., Parker, J.K., Qin, N., Humphries, D.J., Pétursdóttir, Á.H., Halmemies-Beauchet-Filleau, A., Juniper, D.T. & Stergiadis, S. 2024. Effect of dietary protein source and Saccharina latissima on nutritional and safety characteristics of milk. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.13556

Stepanchenko, N., Stefenoni, H., Hennessy, M., Nagaraju, I., Wasson, D. E., Cueva, S. F., Räisänen, S. E., Dechow, C. D., Pitta, D. W., & Hristov, A. N. 2023. Microbial composition, rumen fermentation parameters, enteric methane emissions, and lactational performance of phenotypically high and low methane-emitting dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science, 106(9), 6146-6170. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2022-23190

Asioli, D., Zhou, X., Halmemies-Beauchet-Filleau, A., Vanhatalo, A. Givens, D.I., Rondoni, A. & Turpeinen, A.M. 2023. Consumers’ valuation for low - carbon emission and low – saturated fat butter. Food Quality and Preference 104859, 108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2023.104859

Halmemies-Beauchet-Filleau, A., Shingfield, K. J., Simpura, I., Kokkonen, T., Jaakkola, S., Toivonen, V., & Vanhatalo, A. 2017. Effect of incremental amounts of camelina oil on milk fatty acid composition in lactating cows fed diets based on a mixture of grass and red clover silage and concentrates containing camelina. Journal of Dairy Science 100: 305-324. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2016-11438

Koivunen, E., Talvio, E., Valkonen, E., Tupasela, T., Tuunainen, P. & Valaja, J. 2016. Use of semi-leafless peas (Pisum sativum L) with enzyme addition in diets for broilers. Agricultural and Food Science 25: 90-98.

Halmemies-Beauchet-Filleau, A., Vanhatalo, A., Toivonen, V., Heikkilä, T., Lee, M. R. F., & Shingfield, K. J. 2014. Effect of replacing grass silage with red clover silage on nutrient digestion, nitrogen metabolism, and milk fat composition in lactating cows fed diets containing a 60:40 forage-to-concentrate ratio. Journal of Dairy Science, 97: 3761-3776. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2013-7358.

Halmemies-Beauchet-Filleau, A., Kairenius, P., Ahvenjärvi, S., Toivonen, V., Huhtanen, P., Vanhatalo, A., Givnes, D.I & Shingfield, K.J. 2013. Effect of forage conservation method on plasma lipids, mammary lipogenesis, and milk fatty acid composition in lactating cows fed diets containing a 60:40 forage-to-concentrate ratio. Journal of Dairy Science, 96: 5267-5289. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2013-6571.