Big game cervid meat as a potential good source of plasmalogens for functional foods

•Big game cervids are excellent natural sources of plasmalogens.•The lipid profile is distinctive for moose and caribou skeletal muscle tissues.•Cervid meat or antlers could be used as potential ingredients in plasmalogen supplements.•Alternative uses as natural sources of plasmalogen. Plasmalogen deficiency is associated with increased risks for diabetes mellitus, cancer, cardiac and respiratory diseases, and more recently Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Diet remains one of the most important sources of plasmalogen for humans. There is increasing interest in finding unique natural sources of plasmalogen to be used in the development of functional foods, as well as to improve plasmalogen intake during normal food consumption. Big game cervids meat is gaining popularity as a superior source of protein with enhanced levels of functional lipids. Herein, we show that moose (Alces alces) and caribou (Rangifer tarandus) contain high levels of plasmalogens in their polar lipid composition, e.g., 50–59 % of plasmalogen phosphatidylcholine (pPC) and 56–61 % plasmalogen phosphatidylethanolamine (pPE). Caribou was found to be rich in plasmalogen pPC content (59 %), while moose was dominant in plasmalogen pPE content (61 %). Moose meat is characterized by having ten-folds higher concentration of lyso-plasmalogen pLPE at 417 ± 55 μg/g as compared to 42 ± 4 μg/g and 36 ± 7 μg/g in caribou meat and moose antler, respectively. The phospholipid composition with high plasmalogen content reported in caribou and moose meat/antler suggests that they may serve as natural dietary sources of plasmalogens during normal food consumption.