Nutrition and edible characteristics, origin traceability and authenticity identification of yak meat and milk: A review

Yak is a rare, valuable livestock resource on an extremely harsh environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. There are some studies focused on yaks, but none of them provided comprehensive information on biological aspects, nutritional composition or flavor characteristics. Furthermore, because of the rarity and unique flavor, yak meat and milk are more expensive than those of ordinary cattle so that yak products have been counterfeited for profits. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a series of techniques to realize the traceability and authenticity of yak meat and milk. This review comprehensively summarizes the nutritional properties and edible quality of yak meat and milk. Besides, geographic origin traceability and authenticity identification of yak meat and milk are also discussed, and some new perspectives for further research are also proposed. This review is a comprehensive research of yak meat and milk that are unique, rare and pollutant free, with better quality than normal cattle breeds. There is a huge potential market for yak milk and meat. It is valuable to review the methods for identifying the authenticity of yak meat and milk, and some fast, economical and reliable methods are expected.