**6. Effects of EOs on meat fatty acid profile**

Meat typically has a high content of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and a low content of PUFA/SFA [49]. Therefore, enhancing the PUFA levels in animal diets, either by incorporating a source rich in n-6 or n-3 PUFA, or by supplementing with EOs to inhibit biohydrogenation, generally leads to an improvement in the PUFA/SFA ratio. It has been found that the meat obtained from animals that are fed on pasture has a lower n-6/n-3 ratio compared to the meat from animals that are fed on grains because of the higher levels of α-linolenic acid found in pasture [50].

There are limited studies on the impact of supplementation of EOs to beef on its FA composition. Supplementing rosemary oil had a limited effect on the FA composition in various tissues and did not result in a significant alteration in the overall profile [51–53]. However, according to Nieto et al. [54] rosemary oil has a significant impact on the level of C18:0 content while causing a decrease in C16:0 fatty acid. The addition of anise, clove, and thyme EO enhanced the ratio of PUFA to SFA. It also increased the levels of n-3 fatty acids while decreasing the levels of n-6 fatty acids [5].
