Meat quality characteristics of lambs of three organically raised breeds

Abstract

Carcass and meat (muscullus quadriceps femoris [MQF]) quality characteristics were evaluated in ten lambs per each of Zwartbles (ZW), Suffolk (SF) and Oxford Down (OD) breeds, raised organically and slaughtered at a mean live weight of 38 kg. Meat of ZW lambs had lower (P<0.05) collagen, myoglobin and intramuscular fat content than OD lambs, and lower (P<0.05) tenderness and juiciness scores in comparison with OD and SF lambs. Despite a low polyunsaturated/saturated fatty acid ratio (0.13 in all three breeds; P>0.05), meat of the pasture-fattened lambs can be considered a dietetically superior food with very favourable (0.85-0.88; P>0.05) polyunsaturated fatty acid n - 6/n - 3 ratio, and containing per 100g of muscle on average 62 mg of EPA+DHA (differences between breeds not significant, P>0.05) and no more than 20mg of dietetically unfavourable arachidonic acid.