Use of dietary rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) essential oils to increase the shelf life of Barbarine light lamb meat

The aim of the present study was to determine the increase in shelf life of fresh Barbarine lamb's meat due to the effect of rosemary essential oils (RE) dietary. Thirty-two Barbarine lambs (19.9 kg body weight (BW)) were divided into 2 homogeneous groups receiving 50% dried alfalfa and 50% concentrate. Two types of concentrate were used, the Control (C) and the experimental, which corresponds to C with 0.06% of RE. At the end of the experiment (60 days), all animals were slaughtered. Lipid oxidation (TBARS) and color coordinates of longissimus dorsi (LD) of fresh lamb meat were analyzed on days 1, 3, 7 and 9.The RE incorporation has not affected the ultimate pH and cooking losses. TBARS values significantly increased for both treatments with storage time without any significant effect of regimen. At the ninth day of storage, meat of RE group tended to have higher redness (a*) and lower yellowness (b*) values (11.49 and 5.35 for RE vs. 10.30 and 5.58 for C). Lightness (L*) of meat from both treatments was in the range of acceptability (42-38) throughout the storage period. Panelists reported no significant effect of RE addition on the eating quality of lamb meat which was generally acceptable. The results showed that the dose rate of RE used in the present study did not affect lipid oxidation and had no significant effect against lamb meat discoloration across the storage period.