Effect of age on meat quality characteristics and nutritional composition of Toda buffalo

Abstract

The study was undertaken to study the effect of age viz., young (12-8 months) and adult (above 3 years) on quality characteristics and nutritional composition of meat from Toda buffalo. The Longissimus dorsi muscle was obtained from these animals and the physico-chemical characteristics viz., pH, water holding capacity, instrumental colour, muscle fibre diameter, myofibrillar fragmentation index and nutritional composition viz., proximate composition, amino acid, fatty acid and cholesterol content of two different age groups were studied. The results obtained in this study indicated that the meat of young buffalo had higher water holding capacity, Lightness (L*), yellowness (b*), moisture, essential amino acids, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, ecosapentaenoic acid, docosohexanoic acid, total poly unsaturated fatty acids, total unsaturated fatty acids, total P/S and lesser fat, total saturated fatty acids and cholesterol content than adult. Based on the quality and nutritional composition it was concluded that meat of young animal (12-18 months) had superior meat quality than the meat of adult animals.