Chemical composition and amino acid profiles of goose muscles from native Polish breeds.

The aim of the study was to compare the chemical and amino acid composition of breast (pectoralis major) and thigh (biceps femoris) muscles in 17-wk-old geese from 2 Polish conservative flocks: Rypińska (Ry, n = 20) and Garbonosa (Ga, n = 20). The geese were fed ad libitum during the experimental period on the same complete feed. Genotypes affected the moisture and fat content of breast and thigh meat. The Ga geese were characterized by higher moisture as well as lower fat lipid content compared with the Ry breast and thigh muscles. The amino acid proportions of meat proteins depended on the goose flock and type of muscles, where significant differences were found. The proteins of Ga breast muscles contained more glutamic acid, glycine, lysine, tryptophan, histidine, and methionine, and less aspartic acid, proline, serine, leucine, valine, phenyloalanine, tyrosine, and threonine than the Ry geese (P ≤ 0.05). The proteins of Ry thigh muscles were characterized by higher content of proline, serine, and essential amino acids (without lysine and methionine) and lower glutamic and asparagine acid, alanine, and glycine compared with the Ga flock. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/World Health Organization (1991) standard, tryptophan was the amino acid limiting the nutritional value of meat proteins of Ry breast muscles (amino acid score for tryptophan = 90%). Except for tryptophan, the meat proteins of the investigated raw materials contained more essential amino acids than the standard. The total content of essential amino acids for all investigated muscles was also higher (52.51 to 55.54%) than the standard (33.90%). It is evident that muscle protein from both flocks of geese have been characterized by high nutritional value. The values of the essential amino acid index of breast muscle proteins were similar in both flocks.