Abstract
Simple SummaryAging in donkey meat was never investigated. It represents an important process, because it leads the muscle to become meat. There are many ways to age meat, and vacuum aging is one of these. The present paper characterised donkey meat Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) production during 14 vacuum aging days, its oxidative status and the consequent sensory evaluation. Lipid oxidative processes are delayed, but some protein oxidative processes happen, influencing VOCs production and sensory evaluation.This study aims to improve knowledge on donkey meat and the vacuum aging effect on the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), oxidative profile and status and the sensory characteristics. Ten 18-month old Martina Franca donkeys’ male foals were involved in the trial. Longissimus thoracis (LT) muscle was extracted from each left half carcass, between the fourth and the ninth rib. Each muscle was divided into five sections, vacuum packaged, stored at 2 °C, and randomly assigned to one of the different aging time (1, 3, 6, 9, and 14 days of aging). Volatile compounds, oxidation parameters, and antioxidant enzymes were analysed, and a sensory test was performed. A nested one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed for aging time as an independent variable. Significance was set at p < 0.05. Aldehydes are the most produced VOCs, but no changes were observed during vacuum aging (p > 0.05). Nitrogen compounds increased during aging (p < 0.01). TBARs and hydroperoxides did not change during the storage, whereas the protein carbonyls increased (p < 0.05). Vacuum aging slowed down lipid oxidation and put in evidence the presence of protein oxidation and degradation, influencing the VOCs productions and sensory evaluation.
Highlights
Donkeys (Equus asinus) were domesticated in Northeast Africa thousands of years ago [1] and today are still working animals that contribute to million people life in developing countries
This study aims to start to fill the gap of knowledge on donkey meat and the vacuum aging effect on the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), oxidative profile and status, and the sensory characteristics
The results of this study demonstrated that the vacuum aging of donkey meat poor affect the volatile compounds, it is able to limit all oxidative processes, and so the formation of all VOCs that derive from lipid oxidation
Summary
Donkeys (Equus asinus) were domesticated in Northeast Africa thousands of years ago [1] and today are still working animals that contribute to million people life in developing countries. In Europe and in Italy, donkeys have been employed as working animals until the Second World. Donkey rearing is considered to have a renewed interest mainly for milk [3,4,5] and meat production [2,6,7]. There are traditional dishes of asinine fresh meat, mainly in Northern Italy, several foods, e.g., dry cured sausages, were originally obtained from animals that were slaughtered at the end of working live [6,8]. It is known that the flesh of equids is rejected, especially in the English-speaking world [9,10]; its consumption appears virtually absent in the United
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