Short term supplementation rates to optimise vitamin E concentration for retail colour stability of Australian lamb meat

•Colour stability of lamb meat is improved by nutritional supplementation with vitamin E.•The maximum effect threshold of muscle vitamin E for lamb colour stability was 3.5–4 mg/kg.•The threshold level is required to improve the shelf life of lamb meat up to 60 h.•Lamb meat aged for 21 days had improved shelf life when a sufficient muscle vitamin E concentration was met.

The relationship between vitamin E supplementation rate and colour stability was investigated using 70 mixed sex 6–8 month old crossbred lambs. An initial group of 10 were slaughtered, while the remainder were fed a pellet ration containing either 30, 150, 275 or 400 IU vitamin E/kg ration or on green pasture for 56 days. After slaughter, carcases were halved; one side packed fresh (5 days) and the other in CO2 (21 days), both at 2 °C. Five muscles were set for retail display for 96 h. The oxy/metmyoglobin ratio was measured every 12 h. Colour stability increased with increasing muscle vitamin E until an apparent maximum effect for vitamin E concentration (3.5–4.0 mg α-tocopherol/kg tissue) was reached beyond which no further response was evident. This was reached within 3–4 weeks (275 IU treatment), and meat from these lambs should reach 60 h retail display with a satisfactory surface colour. This effect was most apparent in aerobic muscle types and meat aged post slaughter.