The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different forage-types on lamb meat quality parameters. White Dorper lambs that had grazed five forage-types, were slaughtered commercially. At 24h post-mortem, the m. longissimus lumborum (LL) was removed from one side, sliced into three equal sub-samples, vacuum packaged and assigned to ageing periods (5, 12 or 40days); the other side of LL was aged for 5days. The m. adductor femoris was used for fatty acid analysis. Lambs fed chicory+arrowleaf clover had the highest concentration of health claimable omega-3 fatty acids and the lowest omega-6:omega-3 fatty acid ratio. Forage-types with higher vitamin E content showed lower lipid oxidation levels independent of ageing period. Forage-type and ageing period did not influence the redness, yellowness, chroma or reflectance ratio (630nm÷580nm) of displayed meat. Chicory+arrowleaf clover gave the best results to improve the fatty acid content of lamb meat.
Keywords: Chicory; Grazing; Lucerne; Oxidation status; adductor femoris.
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