Breed, slaughter weight and ageing time effects on physico-chemical characteristics of lamb meat

The effects of breed, slaughter weight and ageing time on the meat quality of the three most important Spanish breeds were considered. Two hundred and twenty-five lambs of Rasa Aragonesa-local meat breed-, Churra-local dairy breed- and Spanish Merino were used. Animals (75 of each breed) were slaughtered at three different live weights (10-12, 20-22 or 30-32 kg), and the meat was aged for 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 days. The meat pH, colour, amount of haem pigments, intramuscular fat, moisture, hydroxyproline content and sarcomere length were measured at 24 h post-mortem. Meat texture was measured by compression after each ageing time. The pH of the samples ranged from 5.50 to 5.58. Meat colour varied with breed and slaughter weight (P ⩽ 0.01), the M. longissimus thoracis was lighter in the youngest animals and in the Churra breed and redder in Merinos. Intramuscular fat increased and moisture decreased for heavier lambs. Differences in collagen were associated with breed (P ⩽ 0.01); total and insoluble collagen contents were higher in the Churra breed. Sarcomere length was only slightly affected by slaughter weight. Meat from the Churra breed had the highest values at high levels of compression. Suckling lambs (10-12 kg) had greater myofibrillar toughness than heavier lambs and ageing strongly influenced myofibrillar tenderness.