Abstract
Animal production system and welfare conditions can influence consumers’ acceptance, as meat from animals grazing in natural pasture and labelled with information about high standards of welfare is preferred. In addition, geographical origin of food is recently considered one of the main information influencing the consumers’ acceptance. Local products are collectively associated with high quality attributes by the consumers related to shorter transport and good welfare. Lamb meat is considered local and typical food; however, it is common to find in the same market both local and imported lamb meat. The present investigation aimed at understanding the importance of information about geographical origin, transport duration, and welfare condition of lambs for consumers and their actual liking. Moreover, the quality of lamb meat from local and imported animals as affected by short or long transport was assessed. Data demonstrated that both short and long transport did not affect organoleptic quality of meat; this result was corroborated by an absence of both metabolic and immune stressors in long term transport lambs except for haptoglobin, cortisol and glucose. However, the expected and actual acceptability were affected by the information with higher scores for local lamb when information on the geographical origin, transport duration, and welfare condition was provided to the consumers.
Highlights
Animal production system and welfare conditions can influence consumers’ acceptance, as meat from animals grazing in natural pasture and labelled with information about high standards of welfare is preferred
The aim of the present study was twofold: i) to assess the welfare conditions and quality of meat from local lambs subjected to a short transport before slaughter (STR), and lambs imported subjected to a long transport time before slaughter (LTR), ii) to investigate the effect of the information about lamb geographical origin, transport duration, and welfare condition on consumers’ perceived, expected and actual acceptability
In order to evaluate the interest of consumers regarding the consumption of lamb meat from different geographical origins and with different welfare conditions, a preliminary focus group was carried out
Summary
Animal production system and welfare conditions can influence consumers’ acceptance, as meat from animals grazing in natural pasture and labelled with information about high standards of welfare is preferred. Geographical origin of food is recently considered one of the main information influencing the consumers’ acceptance. Local products are collectively associated with high quality attributes by the consumers related to shorter transport and good welfare. The present investigation aimed at understanding the importance of information about geographical origin, transport duration, and welfare condition of lambs for consumers and their actual liking. The expected and actual acceptability were affected by the information with higher scores for local lamb when information on the geographical origin, transport duration, and welfare condition was provided to the consumers. Road transport related-stress could negatively affect the animal performance, being responsible for increased mortality and decreased meat quality and animal welfare[15] with potentially relevant economic losses[16]
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