Produção e qualidade de produtos cárneos de cabras terminadas com dietas contendo linhaça inteira.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the inclusion of whole flaxseed in the finishing of adult goats on performance, carcass characteristics, and fat deposits. Eighteen non-lactating adult crossbred Anglo-Nubian goats (3.8 ± 0.7 years; mean ± SD) from the herd of the Experimental Farm of the State University of Ceará were used. The animals were divided into two groups: without whole flaxseed (WFFLG, n = 9) and with whole flaxseed (FFLG, n = 9), with diets containing 2.7% and 6.9% ether extract, respectively. The supplementation period lasted 28 days, and slaughter was performed 48 hours after the end of supplementation. Additionally, a meat product was manufactured, and the quality parameters of the shoulder meat were evaluated before, during, and after the curing and smoking process. The analyses related to carcass and meat quality characteristics were conducted in the days following slaughter at the Ruminant Nutrition and Production Laboratory. The meat cuts were stored in a freezer (-20 ºC) for the subsequent production of smoked shoulders. The dry curing process was performed on the fresh shoulder using salts and spices, followed by storage at 4°C for 72 hours to complete the curing process. The smoking process lasted 6 hours, and in the final 2 hours, Astronium lecointei wood chips were added to the brazier to produce smoke. The meat was considered fully cooked when the internal temperature of the shoulder reached approximately 75°C. All data were subjected to a normality test (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test) and a homoscedasticity test (Bartlett’s test). A completely randomized design was used to evaluate the effects of the diets on the observed parameters. To assess the effect of diets and evaluation time during smoking and their interactions on color and pH, the ‘Proc MIXED’ command in SAS 9.0 software was used. Mean comparisons were performed using Tukey’s test. The performance results showed that finishing with flaxseed (FFLG) did not influence (p > 0.05) body weight, morphometric measurements, body condition, or weight gain. However, the FFLG group showed higher values of feed intake relative to metabolic weight and percentage of live weight (p < 0.05). The internal fat in the sternal region was significantly affected by supplementation (p < 0.05), being higher in the FFLG group, while other body fat deposits were not influenced by diet type. Regarding meat product manufacturing, the physicochemical attributes of raw shoulder meat did not vary according to the experimental diets. However, colorimetric parameters and pH changed during the curing and smoking process. Multivariate analysis of the first two principal components (PC) identified key variables contributing to total variation (L*, a*, b*, C*, h*, and fat content) in raw and smoked meat. Fat content and b* color showed the highest scores for variable importance. The use of flaxseed did not negatively affect animal performance, carcass quality, meat quality, or fat deposits. Supplementation with flaxseed in adult goats did not influence the physicochemical quality parameters of raw shoulder meat. However, after curing and smoking, there was a significant effect of diet on the Hue angle (h*).