The effect of cooking methods on nutritional value of foal meat

• Effect of cooking methods on nutritional value was studied.
• Thermal treatments decreased the saturated fatty acids.
• Fried meat showed the highest differences on the fatty acid composition.
• Thermal treatments affect the content of some individual amino acids.
• Roasting and microwave methods caused an increase in the essential amino acid index.

The present study deals with the effect of four different cooking techniques (roasting, grilling, microwave baking and frying with olive oil) on nutritional value (fatty acid, amino acid profile and chemical scores of the essential amino acids) of foal meat from “Galician Mountain” breed (slaughtered at 15 months and with 102.6 kg of carcass weight). Cooking treatment decreased (P < 0.05) the amount of saturated fatty acids. Fried meat had lower saturated fatty acid content due to the incorporation of mono-unsaturated (C18:1n-9) fatty acids from oil. Statistical analysis displayed that total essential amino acids and non-essential amino acids were no affected by cooking treatment. However, the content of methionine, phenylalanine, hydroxyproline, tyrosine and cysteine increased (P < 0.001) and the content of histidine and lysine decreased (P < 0.001) with cooking treatments. Finally, chemical scores of the essential amino acids presented differences between raw and cooked samples. Cooking treatment decreased the chemical scores of histidine and lysine, and increased methionine and phenylalanine + tyrosine scores. Heat treatments also increased the essential amino acid index, although the grilled and fried samples showed no significant differences from raw meat. In conclusion, the grilled and roasted would be the best cooking techniques from the nutritional standpoint.