Improvement in the quality of ground chevon during refrigerated storage by tocopherol acetate preblending.

A study was conducted on α-tocopherol acetate (TA) preblending at 0, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 ppm levels with ground chevon (GC) obtained from adult male Beetal×Black Bengal goat carcasses, to identify the optimum level of TA required for improving the quality of the meat during refrigerated storage. It was observed that the GC samples preblended with 10 ppm TA had significantly (P<0.05) higher WHC%, colour score, odour score and lower metmyoglobin (MMb) per cent, TBARS number, peroxide value, free fatty acids per cent and psychrotrophic plate count as compared to other TA levels. All the quality parameters studied showed a highly significant (P<0.01) correlation (r-value) between each other. A strong relationship was observed between TBARS number and MMb% during refrigerated storage. A regression equation (Y=0.2800+0.0055X, where Y=TBARS number, X=MMb%) was established. It was concluded that 10 ppm TA was the optimum level for preblending with ground chevon, which extends the shelf life of the meat up to 7 days as compared to 3 days in the control samples during refrigerated storage.