MEAT QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF GOATS FED WITH DIETARY DRY OREGANO (Origanum vulgare L.)

Valeria Velasco^1*, Carola Orellana¹, Pamela Williams¹, Jorge Campos¹, Pedro Melín²

ABSTRACT

Goat meat is different from other types of meat due to its leanness, and its quality is affected by the composition of the animal diet. The objectives of this experiment were to determine some meat quality characteristics of Boer goats fed with dry oregano. The treatments of dry oregano supplementation (dry matter based) were: 0% (Control, n=2), 1% (n=3), and 5% (n=2). The results indicated that the highest decrease of pH of meat occurred 24 hours after slaughtering, resulting in pH between 5.97 and 6.27. There were some significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) in the pH of meat (day 0: treatment with 5% higher than control and 1%; days 3 and 6: 5% lower than 1%; day 4: control higher than 1% and 5%). There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in protein (78.4-82.4%), ash (5.3-5.6%), ether extract (5.3-6.9), non-nitrogenous extract (12.4-14.7%), and moisture contents (76.5- 76.8%), color of raw meat (L* = 41.3-41.4; a* = 12.2-13.7; b* = 12.5-13.7), color of cooked meat (L* = 54.8- 57.6; a* = 3.1-3.6; b* = 15.9-16.6), water holding capacity (1.6-3.2%), storage (1.7-2.0%) and cooking losses (31.6-32.1%) and sensory characteristics. Nevertheless, there were significant differences (P ≤ 0,05) in the instrumental meat hardness, which was not related to the dietary dry oregano inclusion. It was concluded that the incorporation of dietary dry oregano at 1 and 5% in the diet of Boer goats did not affect the meat quality characteristics as determined in this study.

Key words : goat meat, pH, nutritional composition, hardness, sensorial analysis.

¹ Universidad de Concepción, Departamento de Producción Animal, Facultad de Agronomía, Casilla 537, Chillán, Chile.

*Autor para correspondencia: E-mail: vvelasco@udec.cl

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