Affiliations: [a] Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Università di Camerino, Via Circonvallazione 93, 62024 Matelica (MC), Italy. e-mail: paolo.polidori@unicam.it
| [b] Dipartimento di Scienze Morfologiche e Biochimiche Comparate, Università di Camerino, Via Gentile III da Varano, 62032 Camerino (MC), Italy
Abstract: The quality of meat obtained by Fabrianese heavy lambs (33 kg) reared in the Italian Sibillini mountains national park under extensive conditions had been investigated. Twenty entire male lambs had been used in this experiment; the Longissimus Thoracis et Lumborum muscle, taken from all the 20 animals, was analyzed for chemical composition, fatty acid, cholesterol and mineral contents. Protein content was 22.1%, fat content 4.5%, cholesterol 63.5 mg/100 g. The most represented fatty acid was oleic acid (37.62% of total fatty acids), followed by palmitic acid (26.31% of total fatty acids). Phosphorus and potassium were the two most represented minerals in muscles examined, respectively 285.6 and 329.5 mg/100 g. The results of this study demonstrated the good quality of the meat obtained by a local ovine breed slaughtered at higher final body weight when compared with the most common suckling lambs normally commercialized in Italy.
Keywords: Meat quality, Chemical composition, Fatty acid composition, Mineral content
