Shelf life of meat from Boer-Saanen goats fed diets supplemented with vitamin E

This work aims at evaluating shelf life of meat from Boer-Saanen cross goats fed on diets containing vitamin E. Thirty-five feedlot-fed goats with an initial body weight of 21.6 ± 2.8 kg were subjected to four treatments in a completely randomized design: a control treatment with vitamin E plus others containing 50, 150, and 450 mg DL-α-tocopherol acetate/kg DM. Longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle samples were stored at temperatures between 4 and 6 °C during 15 days, and evaluated for lipid peroxidation using the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) method and for visual acceptance by consumers by different survival analysis techniques. The addition, vitamin E in diets influenced shelf life of LL muscle, indicating longer meat preservation as the levels of the vitamin in diet increased, as the results obtained in chemical and subjective visual assessments showed. TBARS analysis showed to be more accurate in predicting shelf life of meat than subjective visual assessment by consumers, which reached a saturation threshold of 2 mg malonaldehyde/kg of meat earlier at all tested levels of vitamin E inclusion.