Colour Changes in Meat of Foals as Affected by Slaughtering Age and Post-thawing Time

Abstract

The aim of the present work was to investigate how colour changes of foal meat can vary after thawing out in relation to the slaughtering age of the horses and to the post-thawing time. Eighteen Italian Heavy Draught Horse (IHDH) foals were used for the trial. They were subdivided in three groups according to their slaughtering age (6, 11 and 18 months). Two different surfaces were investigated for each sample: a fresh cut surface (daily renewed cutting surface: DRCS), and not-renewed cutting surface (NRCS). The redness of both investigated surfaces increased with slaughtering age (p<0.01). Moreover, this parameter decreased during post-thawing time (p<0.01) only on the NRCS, probably due to the myoglobin oxidation processes. Colour is an important visual cue denoting perceived quality by consumers. So, by a chromatic perspective the thawed meat of IHDH foals slaughtered at 6 and 11 months proved to be that which best meets the market requirements.

Foal meat volatile compounds: effect of vacuum ageing on semimembranosus muscle

“…Also, for these compounds, lipid oxidation was the process involved in their formation during cooking. Probably, the lower fat content of horse meat compared with beef and the short ageing time associated with vacuum packaging gives insufficient lipid oxidation with a consequent low increase of these VOCs . Sulfur and nitrogen compounds are important volatile substances for cooked meat, considering also their low odor detection threshold.…”

Effect of nutritive level on carcass traits and meat quality of IHDH foals

“…Tateo et al 2008;Juarez et al 2009;De Palo et al 2013). This lack of variation of intramuscular fat content could be explained by the tendency of horses, depending on their genetics, to concentrate adipogenesis in the subcutaneous district rather than in the intramuscular one (Rossier & Berger 1988;De Palo et al 2012). Ash content tends to increase with increasing NL (P < 0.001).…”

Effects of different milk replacers on carcass traits, meat quality, meat color and fatty acids profile of dairy goat kids

“…In this case (Table 6), lightness (L*) and yellowness (b*) seem to be affected by diet, in fact, in kids fed with warm milk replacer, they appear respectively lower and higher (P < 0.05). These two parameters are closely linked to quantity and quality aspects of intramuscular fat (De Palo et al, 2012;Mancini and Hunt, 2005;Tateo et al, 2013), consequently by different FA composition and oxidation, that is strictly correlated to meat color (Emami et al, 2015;Luciano et al, 2009). However, Emami et al (2015) affirmed that Hue angle (H*), being a function of a* and b*, gives a more realistic perspective of meat browning than single color.…”