Effect of muscle and intensity of finishing diet on meat quality of foals slaughtered at 15 months.

The effect of muscle and intensity of finishing diet on meat quality of foals slaughtered at 15 months was study. For this work, a total of twenty one foals and six muscles: longissimus dorsi (LD), semimembranosus (SM), semitendinosus (ST), biceps femoris (BF), triceps brachii (TB) and Psoas major & minor (PM) from two different intensities of finishing diet (1.5 vs. 3 kg/day) were analysed. Meat quality (chemical composition, colour characteristics, and textural traits), fatty and amino acid profile and mineral composition were studied. In general the factor muscle had more effect on all traits measured in this study than finishing effect, especially in the fatty acids and mineral composition. SM muscle showed the highest percentage of protein in both finishing groups (22.34 and 21.74% for 3 and 1.5 kg of commercial feeding, respectively). The intramuscular fat content in the analysed muscles ranged between 0.15% (LD in 1.5 group) and 1.83% (PM in 3.0 group). The highest values of iron heme that were obtained in TB muscle (2.46 mg/100 g meat) are a considerable source of bioavailable iron content. The three most abundant fatty acids in both groups and for all muscles studied were oleic acid, palmitoleic acid and linoleic acid. From a healthy point of view, muscles from foals finishing with a minor amount of commercial fodder were the best. The best nutritional value was reached for PM and ST with 14.73% of total omega 3 and the highest polyunsaturated/saturated ratio (1.10), respectively. Concerning amino acid profile, values of essential/non-essential ratio were significantly higher (P<0.001) in muscles of 1.5 diet group foals (0.856) than the other group (0.833). Finally, potassium (243 mg/100 g) and phosphorous (202 mg/100 g) were the two main minerals, followed by sodium (54 mg/100 g) and magnesium (26 mg/100 g).