The deterioration of food quality due to lipid oxidation is a serious problem in the food sector. Oxidation reactions adversely affect the physicochemical properties of food, worsening its quality. Lipid oxidation products are formed during the production, processing, and storage of food products. In the human diet, the sources of lipid oxidation products are all fat-containing products, including goose meat with a high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids. This study aims at comparing the fatty acid profile of goose breast muscle lipids depending on the storage conditions: type of atmosphere, temperature, and storage time. Three-way variance analysis was used to evaluate changes in the fatty acids profile occurring in goose meat. The health aspect of fatty acid oxidation of goose meat is also discussed. In general, the fatty acid composition changed significantly during storage in the meat packed in the high-oxygen modified atmosphere at different temperatures (1 °C and 4 °C). Higher temperature led to a higher degree of lipid oxidation and nutrient loss. During the storage of samples in vacuum, no changes in the fatty acid content and dietary indices were found, regardless of the storage temperature, which indicates that the anaerobic atmosphere ensured the oxidative stability of goose meat during 11 days of refrigerated storage.
Keywords: fatty acids; goose; human nutrition; modified atmosphere; vacuum.