Effect of vacuum ageing on quality changes of lamb steaks from early fattening lambs during aerobic display

The effects of vacuum ageing on the quality changes of lamb steaks during retail display were assessed. Biceps femoris and Quadriceps femoris muscles from thirty early fattening lambs fed barley straw and concentrate or alfalfa and concentrate were used. Half of the muscles were vacuum aged for three weeks (VA), and the other half were not aged (control). Control and VA muscles were sliced and aerobically displayed. Weight loss, pH, aldehyde contents, instrumental color characteristics and color acceptance were measured at display days 1, 3, 7 and 14. At day 1 redness was higher in VA lamb. However, redness of VA lamb decreases more rapidly during further storage. Redness and color acceptance decreased in VA lamb from day 3, whereas in not-aged lamb the decrease was observed from day 7 onwards. From days 7 to 14 a drop of color acceptance accompanied by an increase in pH and a decrease in lightness was observed in control and VA lamb. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.The financial support received from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Project AGL2010-19094It and CSIC (Intramural Project 201240E105) are acknowledged. Furthermore, Carolina Blanco was supported by a predoctoral contract (Junta de Castilla y León – European Social Fund); Raúl Bodas and Nuria Prieto had a JAE-Doc contract under the program ‘Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios’(CSIC-European Social Fund).Peer Reviewe