Lipidic quality of the meat chickens fed with diet containing coconut meal

by Fontenele Domingues, Maria Aliciane

This study had the objective of assessing the effect of diets containing coconut meal (CM) on broiler leg meat proximate and lipid composition, and to determine the lipid stability of the meat when packaged with and without vacuum and stored at -20ºC for 45 days. Meat proximal composition and fatty acid profile were measured at the beginning (zero day) and at the end (45 days) of the storing period. Lipid stability of the leg meat (drum and thigh) was measured through the TBARS technique at 0, 15, 30 and 45 days of storage. Storage time influenced moisture, protein and fat contents of the meat. After 45 days of storage meat was higher in moisture and protein levels and lower in fat content as compared to the 0 day of store meat. The proportion of ashes in the meat was not affected (pgt;0,05) by storing time. Unsaturated fatty acid level in meat from birds fed the diet containing CM was lower than that in the meat from birds fed the diet without CM. Related to the storing time effect it was observed that after 45 of storage meat from birds fed CM had lower levels of lauric, palmitic, stearic, arachidic and eicosenoic acids and higher levels od oleic and linoleic acids. Meat lipid stability measured as TBARS values varied from 0.40 to 7.45mg malonaldehyde/kg meat with significant increases during the storage period. The effect of the presence of CM in the diet or the type of packaging of the meat however was less evident.