NUTRITIONAL QUALITYAND MICROBIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF MEAT FLOSS PREPARED FROM MUTTON

Abstract

Mutton is an excellent source of biological value with its inherent low fat content, however, it has untapped market as a good potential for value added meat products. Therefore, it is necessary to appraise the nutrient composition of meat floss (MF) from different breeds of ram. Five kilogram of Semitendonisus muscle was harvested from carcasses of four breeds of rams consisting of West African Dwarf (WAD), Yankasa (YK), Uda (UD) and Balami (BA) intensively fattened for ninety days. Cooking loss (CL), water holding capacity (WHC), moisture contents (MC), crude protein (CP) and ether extract (EE) of mutton and freshly prepared meat floss (MF) were determined. Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances (TBARmgMDA/100g) and microbiological counts (MC) (log 102 cfu/g): Total Aerobic Counts (TAC), Total Coliform Counts (TCC) and Total Fungal Counts (TFC)) at the seventh day were determined. The CL (38.19%, 39.51%) of WAD and YK mutton were significantly higher (P<0.05) while their WHC (61.49%, 59.97%) were lower than UD and BA. The CP (23.16%) and EE (5.85%) of BAM were higher (P<0.05). The CP were (46.75%, 48.73%, 47.82%, 49.60%) and EE (25.69%, 25.46%, 25.88%, 27.35%) for WAD, YK, UD and BA, respectively. The TBAR ranged from 1.12-1.17 mgMDA/100g. The mean MC (log 102 cfu/g) on the MF from WMF was 6.76cfu/g while YMF, UMFand BMF for TAC were 4.38, 3.96 and 3.58cfu/g, respectively. The keeping qualities value of the MF does not exceed the threshold values of stored meat products, therefore, it can be inferred that MF from mutton has a high nutrient and keeping qualities profile.