Both animal fats and fish oil are highly digestible energy sources for animals, and fish are also an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins A and D.
Some fats are also produced from inedible tissues by rendering plants. Overall, animal fats are saturated. That is, carbon atoms of fatty acids joined to the glycerol molecules in their triglyceride contain all possible hydrogen atoms.
The most common long-chain saturated fatty acids of animal tissues are palmitic acid and stearic acid. Since animal fat are high in saturated fatty acids they are usually solid, and have fairly high melting temperatures.
Feed-grade animal fats consist of rendered fats from beef or pork by-products which are mainly slaughterhouse offal or supermarket trimmings from the packaging of meats, and poultry fat includes fats from 100% poultry offal.
Fat rendered commercially from beef and sheep carcasses is commonly called tallow. Beef tallow is hard and typically contains as a percentage of total fatty acid, 26% palmitic, 17% stearic, 43% oleic and 4% linoleic acids.
What is an animal fat?
