Meat quality characteristics of two South African goat breeds after applying electrical stimulation or delayed chilling of carcasses

Two post slaughter procedures namely, electrical stimulation (220 V for 30 s, then chilling at 4 °C) and delayed chilling without electrical stimulation (10-15 °C for 6 h, 4 °C until 24 h) were tested on carcasses of Boer and South African indigenous goats (n = 10 goats per breed). The aim of the study was to assess the ideal slaughter conditions for optimum goat meat quality. Temperature and pH profiles, instrumental colour measurements (CIE L*, a*, b*, Chroma and hue angle), surface myoglobin pigments (deoxymyoglobin, oxymyoglobin and metmyoglobin), water holding capacity (WHC), thawing losses, cooking losses, sarcomere lengths and Warner Bratzler shear force (WBSF) values were evaluated on M. longissimus dorsi (LD) and semimembranosus (SM) samples. Both electrical stimulation and delayed chilling treatments resulted in sarcomeres longer than 1.9 μm, therefore there were no cold shortening effects. The SM samples of electrical stimulation treatment had lower (P < 0.01) WBSF values than corresponding samples of delayed chilling treatment. The LD samples of delayed chilling treatment recorded higher instrumental colour values than corresponding samples of electrical stimulation treatment. Electrical stimulation led to an increase (P < 0.05) in cooking losses, but had no effect (P > 0.05) on WHC, or thawing losses of LD samples. Breed had no effect (P > 0.05) on meat quality characteristics. This study confirms that electrical stimulation has a higher potential than delayed chilling of carcasses in improving goat meat tenderness. Delayed chilling could be more beneficial in improving goat meat colour.