THE INFLUENCE OF ANIMAL NUTRITION ON MEAT QUALITY

The influence of animal nutrition on meat quality Sabrina Ratti Abstract: Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations (FAO) define meat quality as compositional quality and palatability factors such as visual appearance, smell, firmness, juiciness, tenderness, and flavour. Recently, the attention has been focused on the improvement of meat quality parameters. The protection of lipids from oxidative phenomena is fundamental to preserve meat color, nutritional quality and increase shelf life, enhancing consumer acceptability. Otherwise, it is possible to enhance nutritional quality of meat and meat products, modifying fat content and fatty acid profile. Animal feeding is a key factor for improve meat quality parameters through dietary supplementation with different additives. Antioxidants are one of the major strategies for preventing lipid oxidation in meat products, decreasing oxidative phenomena and increasing shelf life. The search for safe and effective natural antioxidants has focused on plants extract. Dietary supplementation with antioxidant mixture containing polyphenols in swine, enhance color parameters and oxidative stability in Longissimus Dorsi muscle (trial 1 and 2). Moreover, the same plant extract improved oxidative stability and sensory parameter in donkey and horse Longissimus Lomborum muscle (trial 3). Also genetic type significantly affects cooked ham chemical profile, without affecting other quality parameters (trial 4). Nutritional quality of pork products are improved by dietary linseed supplementation, enhancing muscle and adipose tissue n-3 PUFA content. Meta-analysis data provides information to find the optimal dosage, source and length of linseed dietary supplementation in relation to slaughter weight and genetic type (trial 5). Our results point out the importance of animal dietary supplementation with plant extract and linseed, on oxidative stability, physical, chemical and sensory parameters of different type of meat and meat product.