Hair sheep lamb meat ageing-an instrumental color analysis

Abstract

Background: The color of meat may be modified by physiological or process factors such as species, gender, the amount of muscle fibers, genetic characteristics and age, producing differences that can be observe by the consumer. Objectives: This work was aimed at evaluating the effect of a feeding system in instrumental Color parameters for hair sheep lambs crossed with Colombian breeds Methods: Fifty-four 10-week-old Dorper X Colombian lambs were used in 2 feeding systems: grazing and semi-feedlot (n=27); each feeding group was divided into 3 fasting groups (6, 12 and 18 hours) prior to slaughter. Samples were analyzed in 3 ageing conditions (0, 7 and 15 days), using L*, a* and b* color values obtained by instrumental evaluation. Results: There were only significant differences between the feeding systems at days 7 ageing (p<0.05). Instrumental L* values increased with ageing. Conclusions: Ageing time and feeding system affect the color results in the studied lambs, this differences implies that this variables should be had in account in order to obtain lamb meat quality.