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To evaluate the effect of genotype on carcass traits and meat quality, sixty-four rabbits belonging to two genotypes (slow growing local population, LP; commercial hybrids, HY) were used. Rabbits were weaned at 35 days of age and slaughtered when they reached 2500 g of live weight, corresponding to 103 and 87 days of age for LP and HY, respectively. Comparing the slaughter traits of two genotypes, LP provided higher dressing out (59.4 vs 56.2%, P<0.01) and skin percentage (16.0 vs 14.2%, P<0.05), lower incidence of full gastrointestinal tract (18.5 vs 22.3%, P<0.01) and higher incidence of head (9.5 vs 8,9%, P<0.05) and kidneys (0.99 vs 0.86%, P<0.05) than HY. Reference carcasses from LP had greater incidence of perirenal fat (2.04 vs 1.12%; P<0.01), loin (21.5 vs 19.2%; P<0.01) and hind leg (34.4 vs 31.6%; P<0.01) than HY. Hind leg meat-to-bone ratio was significantly higher in HY than LP (4.7 vs 3.8%; P<0.01). The comparison between the variances of slaughter weight, chilled carcass weight, kidneys percentage, reference carcass weight, perirenal fat and hind leg percentage showed the greatest variability in the LP. Meat derived from LP showed lower L*, higher a*, b* and C* colour values than HY (P<0.01). In conclusion, LP showed good slaughter traits and favourable meat quality. The great variability observed in the LP could allow to improve the productive performances, however maintaining animal rusticity

The aim of this study was to evaluate several quality characteristics of meat obtained from 20 Limousine calves slaughtered either according to conventional methods (n=10) or by the Islamic ritual slaughtering procedure (n=10). After 7 days of ageing under vacuum, pH, drip loss, colour and oxymyoglobin percentage were measured on longissimus dorsi muscle after 2h, 2 and 6 days of storage to study their evolution. With conventional slaughter pH remained stable until the 6th day of storage, while with ritual slaughter it increased from the 2nd to 6th day of storage. Drip loss increased considerably from the 2nd to 6th day of storage in conventional slaughter, while in ritual slaughter the drip loss increase was lower. Meat colour was not influenced by the slaughtering system but only by the different lengths of storage

The effect of polyvinyl chloride packaging (PP), vacuum packaging (VP) and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) (60% O2, 30% CO2, 10% N2) on some quality parameters and microbiological profile of beef was studied. Longissimus dorsi samples were examined at 7‐day intervals during storage at 4C ± 2C, until 21 days. pH of PP beef increased during storage, whereas in VP and MAP beef remained stable. Superficial color darkened for PP samples, remaining stable until 7 and 21 days for VP and MAP samples, respectively; internal color was not significantly influenced by either storage time and packaging methods. Water‐holding capacity was not affected by packaging methods, increasing from 7 to 21 days. VP showed lower lipid oxidation than MAP until 21 days and than PP until 14 days. Total mesophilic counts reached the threshold of 107 ufc/g after 7 days in PP and after 14 and 21 days in MAP and VP, respectively. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The results of this study confirmed that meat packaged in polyvinyl chloride packaging (PP) must be stored for few days to not fall into pH, color and microbiological alterations; meat packaged in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), even though maintained appreciable superficial colorimetric characteristics, showed a high microbiological growth from 14 days of storage; meat vacuum packaged (VP), although the worst colorimetric appearance, showed the best keeping properties in terms of microbiological profile and lipid oxidation lower than MAP until 21 days of storage. Nevertheless, the fact that the internal color of meat is similar among different packaging systems, independently from time of storage, may suggest that VP system may be useful for prolonged storage of big pieces of meat.