Simonová M.P., Chrastinová Ľ., Mojto J., Lauková A., Szábová R., Rafay J. (2010): Quality of rabbit meat and phyto-additives. Czech J. Food Sci., 28: 161-167.The consumption of healthy and nutritive food (rich in proteins and low in cholesterol and lipid contents) is a preferred factor with the contemporary consumers. In addition, natural alternatives are requested to replace the additives used up to now but recently banned. To reach the above given condition, phyto-additives represent a good alternative. The aim of this study was to examine the physicochemical properties and amino acid composition of rabbit meat after the enrichment of rabbit diet with oregano, sage, and Eleutherococcus senticosus extracts, and to make a comparison with the commercial product XTRACT and control samples (without plant extracts). The addition of oregano and sage extracts as well as El. senticosus in the rabbit diet positively influenced the physicochemical properties of rabbit meat by increasing its energy value (P < 0.05 -sage). Supplementing rabbits feed with oregano and sage extracts led to an improvement on the amino acid composition (P < 0.01; P < 0.001 -serine). These findings are also supported by the good health state of rabbits. Outgoing from these results, the diet enriched with the plant extracts is beneficial for the health state of rabbits involving the nutritional quality of rabbit meat in connection with consumers. Nowadays, consumers are increasingly interested in a healthy lifestyle, e.g. energy and nutritional values of foods, which are rich in protein and low in cholesterol and lipid contents. From the nutritional point of view, rabbit meat is flavourful and easily digested, with high nutritional and dietetic properties: this meat contains 20-21% of proteins, unsaturated fatty acids (oleic and linoleic; 60% of all fatty acids), potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium, it has low concentrations of fat, cholesterol, and sodium (Bielanski et al. 2000;Dalle Zotte 2002;Hermida et al. 2006). That is why the rabbit meat is better digested as compared to other kinds of meat (beef, lamb, or pork;Enser et al. 1996) and is recommended for consumption, e.g. for persons with cardiovascular illnesses (Hu & Willett 2002). Moreover, the energy value of rabbit meat (427-849 kJ/100 g of fresh meat) is comparable to various commonly consumed sorts of red meat (Dalle Zotte 2002). KeywordsThe studies concerned with the quality of rabbit meat have focused mainly on biochemical or biophysical traits such as pH, water holding capacity, or colour (Pla et al. 1998; Hernández et al. 2000). The results on the sensory properties, e.g. appearance, texture, flavour, and others, are also 162 Vol. 28, 2010, No. 3: 161-167 Czech J. Food Sci. (Lewis et al. 2003;Lauková et al. 2006;Marcin et al. 2006;Simonová et al. 2008). While most of the studies deal with the moderating effects of the environmental, feeding, genetic, and biological (age and weight) factors as well as those of technological (pre-slaughter, transportation, processing) c...

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The aim of this investigation was to characterise the fatty acid composition within intramuscular fat (IMF) of two muscles (breast and thigh) from 28 pheasants, ten wild ducks and 27 black coots from Slovakia. A high variability for all single fatty acids (FA) and the total fat concentration in muscles of wild birds was identified. Black coots deposited the highest fat in breast muscle whereas wild ducks and pheasants accumulated more lipids in thigh muscle. In general, the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) of the IMF in wild bird muscles was high, and the saturated FA concentration was lower compared with muscles of domestic farm animals. The ratio between PUFA and saturated fatty acids (PSQ) ranked between 0.6 and 1.2, and the ratio of n-6/n-3 fatty acid was favourably low in black coot and wild pheasants (3.2 and 2.9, respectively). Farmed pheasants had increased IMF and more saturated and n-6 fatty acids deposited in thigh muscle but not in breast muscle.

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Abstract. The objective of this research was to examine the impact of supplementation with magnesium oxide (MgO) on the fatty acid composition, antioxidative capacity and quality parameters, determined on 24 pork longissimus muscles (LD). Crossbred pigs equal for halothane genotypes (12 normal, nonmutant – NON, 12 heterozygous, monomutant – MON) and sex, were fed a diet supplemented with MgO (3.6 g magnesium daily) for 5 days prior to the slaughter. There was a tendency of higher intramuscular fat, a significant higher concentration of C17:0 and C18:2n-6, C22:5n-3 and the total amount of n-3 fatty acids (P < 0.05) in LD of supplemented pigs. A higher resistance to in vitro stimulation of peroxidation in muscle with MgO supplementation was observed. Increasing dietary level of MgO resulted in higher concentration (P < 0.05) of magnesium in plasma. Genotype had significant effects on some quality indicators . Pigs fed the MgO supplemented diet had higher muscle pH compared to pigs fed the control diet. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were received between control heterozygous pigs and MgO normal pigs. The LD of pigs fed diets supplemented with MgO had lower percentage of drip loss compared to pigs fed the control diet. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were found between heterozygotes control group and the other three groups. In conclusion MgO supplementation could not only improve post mortem pH rate breakdown and water holding capacity but also the antioxidant stability.