Nutritional Quality Evaluation of Rabbit Meat (Flemish Giant Breed) Corelated with Fatty Acids Content

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional quality of rabbit meat (Flemish Giant breed) in terms of content of fatty acids. The biological material consisted of 42 rabbits (17 females and 15 males) from which were collected Longissimus dorsi, Semimembranosus and Triceps Brachii muscles immediately after slaughter. The samples were vacuum packaged, frozen at -80oC, and immediately after thawing have been minced and freeze-dried at -110oC (using lyophilizer CoolSafe Scanvac). The content in fatty acids was followed through NIRS methodology, using FOSS 6500 spectrophotometer, by gender. Was determined: the saturated fatty acids: C14:0 (Myristic acid), C15: 0 (Pentadecanoic acid), C16: 0 (Palmitic acid), C17: 0 (Heptadecanoic acid) and C18: 0 (Stearic acid); monounsaturated fatty acids: Palmitoleic acid (C16: 1n-7), Vaccenic acid, cis-isomer of oleic acid (C18: 1n-7) and oleic acid (C18: 1n-9) and the polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω3 and ω6): C18: 2n-6 (linoleic acid), C18: 3n-3 (Linolenic acid), C20: 2n-6 (Eicosadienoic acid), C20: 3n-6 (Eicosatrienoic acid), C20: 4n-6 (arachidonic acid), C20: 5n-3 (Eicosapentaenoic acid), C22: 4n-6 (Docosatetraenoic acid), C22: 5n-3 (Docosopentaenoic acid) and C22: 6n- 3 (docosahexaenoic acid). The results were statistically analyzed, including analysis of variance (ANOVA) and significant differences between genders were observed.

Keywords

• meat
• polyunsaturated fatty acids
• rabbit