Modulation of fat content in lamb leg meat by vitamin E and flaxseed oil supplementation

Abstract

The quality of ovine meat can be influenced by the inclusion of lipids and antioxidants in the diet, aiming to improve its physicochemical characteristics and prolong its oxidative stability. This study evaluated the composition of lamb leg meat from animals fed diets with different levels of vitamin E (0, 1, 2, 3, and 4%), combined with flaxseed oil inclusion. Fifty male Dorper lambs, with a final average weight of 42.5 ± 3.8 kg, were housed individually. Vitamin E was supplied in the commercial form of DL-alpha-tocopheryl acetate. The physicochemical characteristics of the meat were analyzed by near-infrared spectroscopy (FoodScan™). The experimental design was completely randomized, with five treatments and ten replicates. Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear regression using the PROC MIXED procedure of SAS software (version 9.4), with a significance level of 5%. Only the fat content showed a significant linear increase (p = 0.043), reaching a maximum of 4.27%. The other variables showed no significant differences: cooking losses at 36.12% (p = 0.437), water retention capacity at 17.23% (p = 0.389), moisture at 71.83% (p = 0.147), protein concentration at 22.24% (p = 0.541), ash at 2.03% (p = 0.154), and collagen at 1.41% (p = 0.106). The variation in fat content may be related to the antioxidant action of vitamin E on lipid metabolism and intramuscular fat deposition. It is concluded that supplementation with vitamin E, combined with flaxseed oil, has the potential to modulate fat content in lamb leg meat without significantly affecting other evaluated physicochemical parameters.