Nutrigenomics turns feeding into a measurable quality variable

A new review in *Veterinary and Animal Science* consolidates the state of nutrigenomics in livestock and poultry production. The term describes the systematic study of how nutrients, diets and bioactive components interact with gene activity and other molecular layers in animals. The authors assess studies published from 2015 to 2026 and cover genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and epigenetics.

For the meat sector, the key point is the link between feeding, animal health, performance and product traits. The review does not present nutrigenomics as a single feeding recommendation. Rather, it is a framework for capturing more precisely how different animals respond to diets. Disease resilience, metabolism, feed efficiency and the quality of foods obtained from the animals can therefore be evaluated in one connected context.

The technical hurdle remains substantial. Molecular data become operationally useful only when they are linked to reliable information on origin, ration, housing, health status and performance. Subsequent product-quality traits also need to be clearly defined and measured. A change in gene expression is not, by itself, evidence of better tenderness, a different flavour or greater processing stability.

Its practical value therefore lies less in immediate individual feeding for every herd than in improved experimental design. Businesses testing feeding as a quality lever should combine animal data, slaughter and meat-quality data, and sensory assessment from the outset. Nutrigenomics can help identify plausible causal relationships; it does not replace validation in animals and in meat.