Effect of different production systems on lamb sensory quality

Abstract

The influence of four different production systems (thereafter, treatment) on lamb meat sensory characteristic measured by a trained panel test was analysed. The treatments were: INT, lambs were kept indoor with free access to concentrate while dams were only indoor from 15:00 to 08:00 h. EST, lambs and ewes were kept indoor with free access to concentrate. GR, lambs and ewes grazed alfalfa without concentrate, GR+S, animals grazed alfalfa and lambs had cereal supplement. Lambs from DRL-GRE and DRL were weaned at 45 days old. Six entire male lambs from each treatment were slaughtered at 20-22 kg live weight and theirs carcasses were cooled at 4°C. At 24 hours post mortem, Longissimus lumborum were excised, vaccum packed and aged for a total period of three days. Samples were grilled to an internal temperature of70 cC. A trained nine-member panel valued lamb odour intensity, tenderness, juiciness, lamb flavour intensity, liver flavour intensity, fat flavor intensity, metallic flavour intensity and overall liking using a 1 O-point scale. An ANOVA procedure, means and standard deviation for each attribute in each treatment and Pearson correlation analysis were carried using SPSS v.l3.0 software. No differences between treatments were found for any variable. All variables were closely related one each others. Overall liking was positively correlated with tenderness and juiciness and negatively correlated with liver, fat or metallic flavours. From a sensorial point of view, alfalfa grazing is a workable alternative to traditional concentrate feeding for rearing lambs.