Study on chemical composition, fatty acid composition and technological quality of meat in Boer goat kids

Dimitar Panayotov

Abstract: The main objectives of this study are to evaluate the chemical composition, fatty acid composition and technological quality of meat in Boer goat kids weaned at 120 days of age for producing “capretto” goat meat. Analyzed were samples from four male single born kids, offsprings of the first Boer goats imported in Bulgaria. The Boer goats were kept in Agroustina farm in Plovdiv district, which was the first farm in Bulgaria to raise the bloodline Boer goat. The studied kids were raised with their mothers until 120 days of age and their main food was their mother’s milk. Analized were several chemicals and technological parameters: moisture %, protein %, fat %, minerals %, рН24, water-holding capacity (WHC), cooking losses at roast (%), losses at keeping (%), tenderness, (°P) in the three muscles: m. Longissimus dorsi (LD), m. Semimembranosus (SM) and m. Iliapsoas (Ips). LD had the highest content of moisture (75.26%) and fat (3.19%) but least protein (20.59%) and minerals (0.96). The highest content of protein (22.27%) and minerals (1.30%) had SM. The lowest pH24 was in Ips – 5.30 and the highest – in MS 5.62. The lowest WHC were found in LD 22.06% but the highest in Ips – 27.68%. The cooking losses at roast of the three analyzed muscles ranged from 47.66% for SM to 54.75 for Ips. There were large differences between the losses at keeping – from 2.38% for LD to 5.59 for SM. The highest tenderness had Ips (368.26ο Р) but the lowest had SM (306.74ο Р). The fatty acid (FA) composition was analyzed in samples from two adipose tissue depots: pelvic fat and kidney fat by gas chromatography. Fatty acid ratios (Ω-6/ Ω-3 and PUFA/SFA ratios) as well as three indexes: the Index of atherogenicity (IA), the Index of thrombogenicity (IT) and the Cholesterolemic index (h/H) were calculated on the basis of individual FA content in kids fat depots. FA composition showed that oleic (C18:1), docosahexaenoic (C22:6 Ω-3) and arachidonic (C20:4 Ω-6) FA comprised the largest proportion of FA, with oleic acid being the most abundant – respectively 39.93% and 38.42%. The poly-unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) presented the highest percent of FA in both fat depots – 43.87% in pelvic fat and 40.23% in kidney fat; mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) were higher in kidney fat (43.10%) than in pelvic fat (41.16%). The saturated fatty acid (SFA) percent were only 14.97% and 16.67% respectively. Desirable fatty acids (DFA) were 86.36% in pelvic fat and 85.40% in kidney fat. The value obtained for Ω-6/ Ω-3 FA ratio is 0.908 for pelvic fat and 1.100 for kidney fat that is close to the recommended 1.0 as ideal value. The PUFA/SFA ratio varied from 2.41 in kidey fat to 2.93 in pelvic fat. The values obtained for h/H index were 3.216 in pelvic fat and 2.755 in kidney fat; the average IT was respectively 0.148 and 0.184 and the IA was 0.202 and 0.221 respectively. The all studied FA ratios and indexes were very favorable and indicate healthiness of capretto meat from Boer goat kids weaned at 120 days age.

Keywords: chemical composition; fatty acids, lipid indexes; goat meat; muscles; technological quality

Date published: 2021-12-19