Palatability of meat from electrically stimulated carcasses of yearling and older entire‐male and female sheep

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Abstract
Summary: Pasture‐fed male and female sheep ranging in age from yearling to more than 4 years old were slaughtered at various times throughout the year. Carcasses were electrically stimulated and frozen.Flavour and odour of the cooked meat were evaluated with three different taste‐testing procedures: an analytical laboratory taste panel, an in‐house consumer taste panel and a mass consumer taste panel. Tenderness was assessed with both a tenderometer and the in‐house consumer taste panel.None of the panels found any differences between the meat from yearling rams or ewes. The laboratory panel detected foreign flavours more commonly in the meat from older rams than older ewes. These foreign flavours were not considered objectionable by the other two taste panels; in fact, meat from the older rams was often preferred to the meat from the older ewes. There were no differences in objective tenderness among sheep from any age group. Taste panel results, however, showed meat from the older sheep to be less tender than that from the yearling sheep, but found no sex‐related differences in tenderness between the mutton of similar‐aged animals.

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