Effect of sex on meat quality characteristics

Abstract

The goal of the current work was to determine the quality of male and female cattle and buffalo meat, as well as a trial for improving meat quality by feeding the experimental groups from cattle and buffalo for four months in rations containing 16.5% protein. During the year 2021, eighty samples of cattle and buffalo were obtained from butcher shops in Luxor, Egypt. The samples were divided into four categories: male cattle, female cattle, male buffalo, and female buffalo each class was represented by 20 samples. Trails for improvement of the nutritional content of meat by feeding ration containing 16.5% protein to male cattle and buffalo, each class was represented by 10 animals. The samples were analyzed for determination of moisture, protein, fat, ash, carbohydrate, energy percentage, cooking loss, water holding capacity, tenderness as well as cholesterol determined in perinephric fat. Male beef was characterized by greater protein content (18.02% ± 0.35%). On the other hand, male buffalo was characterized by low fat content and cholesterol levels of 1.60% ± 0.85% and 294.30 ± 2.40 mg/100gm, respectively. The experimental male cattle showed the highest protein percentage (18.50% ± 0.37%) and lowest cholesterol level (267.19 ± 6.25 mg /100 gm). The use of the experimental ration could improve the quality of male beef in terms of protein value as well as cholesterol level.

Keywords

• beef
• buffalo meat
• meat quality
• proximate analysis.