Comparison of the meat and carcass quality of lambs raised in organic or conventional production systems.

The ‘organic’ label on a product guarantees that synthetic fertilisers, pesticides and hormones are not used in the production process and that the use of pharmaceutical products and drugs is limited. However, product quality is often questioned and we have to anticipate the consumer demand for product quality guarantees. This study was conducted to compare the sensory and nutritional meat and carcass qualities of lambs raised under an organic (O) or a conventional (C) production system. Comparisons were made with both pasture-fed lambs and lambs that were stall-fed indoors with concentrate and hay. The experiment was conducted over two years for stall-fed lambs (S) (group O, n=24; group C, n=24) and three years for pasture-fed lambs (P) (group O, n=36; group C, n=36). For P lambs, O and C production systems differed in terms of the level of mineral N fertilisation of the pasture. For S lambs, the feed was organic vs. conventional, and the ingredients of O and C concentrates were the same. The nutritional quality of the meat (longissimus dorsi) was assessed in terms of its fatty acid (FA) composition, and the sensory quality of the loin chop was assessed by a trained sensory panel. In stall-fed lambs, the health value of meat FA for human consumption was higher in the O group than in the C group, but there was no difference in the sensory quality of the meat and the carcass between the O and C groups. In pasture-fed lambs, there were no significant differences between the O and C groups in terms of the health value of meat FA. However, in pasture-fed lambs, the loin chops had a higher level of abnormal odour of the fat in the organic than in the conventional group, probably due to a higher proportion of white clover in the diet

Use of twitter data for waste minimisation in beef supply chain

Approximately one third of the food produced is discarded or lost, which accounts for 1.3 billion tons per annum. The waste is being generated throughout the supply chain viz. farmers, wholesalers/processors, logistics, retailers and consumers. The majority of waste occurs at the interface of retailers and consumers. Many global retailers are making efforts to extract intelligence from customer’s complaints left at retail store to backtrack their supply chain to mitigate the waste. However, majority of the customers don’t leave the complaints in the store because of various reasons like inconvenience, lack of time, distance, ignorance etc. In current digital world, consumers are active on social media and express their sentiments, thoughts, and opinions about a particular product freely. For example, on an average, 45,000 tweets are tweeted daily related to beef products to express their likes and dislikes. These tweets are large in volume, scattered and unstructured in nature. In this study, twitter data is utilised to develop waste minimization strategies by backtracking the supply chain. The execution process of proposed framework is demonstrated for beef supply chain. The proposed model is generic enough and can be applied to other domains as well

Influence de la composition en acides gras alimentaires et de la teneur en vitamine E sur l'oxydation des lipides et des protéines membranaires microsomaux de muscles de dindon

National audienc

Les défauts de couleur du tissu adipeux sous-cutané des carcasses d'ovins

Les caractéristiques de couleur et de fermeté de 27 échantillons de tissu adipeux récoltés en abattoir (4 blancs, 4 jaunes, 19 brun-rouge) ont été décrites par différentes méthodes utilisables en abattoir ou en laboratoire (en particulier, la spectrocolorimétrie). Pour certains de ces échantillons, des informations concernant les conditions d’élevage des animaux ont pu être collectées. Les tissus adipeux blancs « de référence » étaient fermes et correspondaient à des agneaux produits essentiellement à l’herbe. Nous y avons trouvé une faible quantité de pigments héminiques, probablement de l’oxyhémoglobine résiduelle après saignée. Les tissus adipeux jaunes étaient colorés par des pigments héminiques, et par des pigments caroténoïdes et/ou de la bilirubine et présentaient des caractéristiques de fermeté assez proches de celles des tissus adipeux blancs. Les origines possibles de ces défauts de coloration sont présentées. Les tissus adipeux brun-rouge provenaient généralement d’animaux ayant reçu des rations riches en concentré. Ces tissus présentaient des défauts de fermeté dus à une diminution de leur teneur en lipides et à une modification de leur composition en acides gras. Le défaut de coloration a pu être attribué 1) à un effet du degré de fermeté du tissu adipeux sur la réflexion de la lumière, 2) à l’accumulation excessive de pigments héminiques. Celle-ci résulte de la fragilisation de la membrane des érythrocytes du fait des caractéristiques de composition en acides gras des phospholipides, 3) aux produits de la peroxydation des acides gras insaturés, elle même stimulée par ces pigments héminiques.Color and firmness characteristics of 27 samples of lamb carcass subcutaneous fat (4 white, 4 yellow, 19 brown-red) are described using different methods (including spectrocolorimetry). For some samples, data on lamb fattening conditions were available. White adipose tissues, considered as normal, were firm ; a low concentration in heme pigments was observed (probably residual oxyhemoglobin after slaughter). These samples came from grazing lambs. Yellow adipose tissues were pigmented with carotenoids and/or bilirubin. Their firmness was rather similar to white adipose tissues. Reasons for yellow discoloration are presented. Most brown-red adipose tissues came from animals that were fattened with concentrates. These tissues were soft because of a lower lipid proportion and a change in fatty acid composition. Brown-red discoloration has been explained by 1) an effect of softness on light reflectance, 2) an excess in heme pigment concentration, 3) peroxydation of insaturated fatty acids

Effect of dietary fat and vitamin E on colour stability and on lipid and protein oxidation in turkey meat during storage

International audienc