Effect of post mortem temperatures and modified atmospheres packaging on shelf life of suckling lamb meat

•The slow chilling of lamb carcasses does not adversely influence the meat quality.•Oxidation was higher in the 20/70/10% CO2/O2/N2 packs, this was not a disadvantage.•The deterioration of the packaged lamb forelegs was due to microbial spoilage.

The effect of different post-mortem temperature treatments (conventional: 3 ± 1 °C for 24 h post-mortem versus slow: 12 ± 2 °C for the first 7 h and 3 ± 1 °C until 24 h post-mortem) and different modified atmospheres of packaging (20/70/10% CO2/O2/N2versus vacuum) was evaluated on forelegs of suckling lamb during 18 days of display at 4 °C. The results of the present study showed that slow post-mortem temperature treatment applied to suckling lamb carcasses had no adverse effect on the quality of forelegs packaged in comparison to the conventional post-mortem treatment. The packaging method had an effect (P < 0.05) and the samples packaged with the gas mixture presented higher lipid and myoglobin oxidation. However, this fact did not involve a disadvantage compared to vacuum packaging. The deterioration of the quality of packaged lamb forelegs was due to microbiological deterioration during the storage period. From day 13, the total viable counts reached values beyond the limit of microbiological acceptability which resulted in the presence of off-odour and rejection by the judges.