Effect of Age, Gender and Carcass Massiveness on Horse Meat Characteristics
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2014-09-17 |
The objective of the study was to determine the influence of age, gender and carcass massiveness on horse meat properties using carcasses adult horses slaughtered in Lithuania. The carcasses were chilled at 2–4oC for 24 h immediately after slaughtering in an accredited abattoir. With the aim to avoid the damage of the carcasses for export, the samples of m. pectoralis profundus were excised from the left of each carcass before their shipment. All horsemeat composition and properties were detected according to the EU reference methods. The data were subjected to the analysis of variance in general linear (GLM Multivariate) procedure in SPSS 17. Horse meat was characterized by a favourable polyunsaturated (PUFA)/saturated (SFA) (0.67–0.77) and n-6 PUFA/n- 3PUFA (0.63–0.78) ratios of intramuscular fat. The age increase from 4 to 21 years of adult horses did not appear to affect meat composition, rheological properties and fatty acid composition. However, the increase of Warner-Bratzler shear force values was observed with the increase in horses’ age. The properties of meat quality were affected by gender. In comparison with the mares and castrates the stallions had the lowest percentage of intramuscular fat and the highest percentage of protein. The mares tended to have a lower content of cholesterol compared with castrated males. Carcass massiveness showed the differences in meat colour parameters and protein content. Horse gender and carcass massiveness also tended to show differences in fatty acid composition and some textural properties.