Use of dietary vitamin E and selenium (Se) to increase the shelf life of modified atmosphere packaged light lamb meat.

The aim of this work was to determine the increase in the shelf life of modified atmosphere packaged fresh lamb meat due to the effect of dietary vitamin E and selenium supplementation on colour and lipid oxidation. 128 lambs were fed on a concentrate with standard levels of vitamin E (C), a concentrate enriched with vitamin E (V), a concentrate with sodium selenite (S) and a concentrate enriched with both vitamin E and sodium selenite (VS). The lambs were slaughtered at 27.3±1.45 kg LW, and chops stored on MAP for 7, 9, 11 and 13 days. CIELab colour and TBARs were studied on these days. Use of dietary vitamin E extended the shelf life a further 4 days from the commercial sell-by date in terms of lightness, hue angle, metmyoglobin formation and lipid oxidation. Selenium could be used to increase the lightness of meat without vitamin E supplementation in lambs' diets.