PRELIMINARY STUDY OF MEAT QUALITY OF LAMBS FED WITH DIETARY DRY OREGANO

Valeria Velasco ^1*, Julieta Parada ¹, Pamela Williams ¹, Jorge Campos ¹, Pedro Melín ²

ABSTRACT

Background: The increase in lamb meat exports to the European market encourages producers to increase production and improve meat quality, with product differentiation. Objectives: To determine some meat quality parameters of Suffolk Down lambs fed with dietary dry oregano. Methods: The treatments of dietary dry oregano supplementation (dry matter based) were: 0% (T0, n=2), 1% (T1, n=2), 2.5% (T2, n=2) y 5% (T3, n=3). Results: pH of meat measured 24 h after slaughtering was lower than initial pH, resulting in pH values higher than 6.0. There were some significant differences (p≤ 0.05) in pH of meat (day 0: T1 higher than T0; day 2: T3 higher than T2). There were no significant differences (p>0.05) in yield (43.8-45.5%), protein (77.7-79.3%), ash (4.7-4.8%) and moisture contents (75.8-76.8%), color (L*=34.8- 36.9; a*=13.0-14.5; b*=10.9-11.9), cooked meat hardness (instrumental, 1.2-1.5 N mm-2), storage losses (2.3-3.0%) and cooking losses (24.1-35.8%) and sensory characteristics. Nevertheless, there were significant differences (p≤ 0,05) in ether and non-nitrogenous extracts, raw meat hardness, water holding capacity, hardness (sensorial), with no clear relationship to dietary dry oregano inclusion. Conclusions: The dietary dry oregano incorporated at 1, 2.5 and 5% in diet of lambs did not change the meat quality characteristics as determined in this study.

Keywords: Lamb meat, pH, proximal analysis, instrumental analysis, acceptability.

¹ Universidad de Concepción, Departamento de Producción Animal, Facultad de Agronomía, Avenida Vi- cente Méndez 595, Casilla 537, Chillán, Chile. Email: vvelasco@udec.cl

² Universidad de Concepción, Departamento de Agroindustrias, Facultad de Ingeniería Agrícola, Chillán, Chile.