Turkeys were fed diets containing tallow or soybean oil with either 5 or60mg/kg all-rac-a-tocopherol for 9 weeks before slaughter. Muscle was sampled aseptically from breast or thigh and stored at 37, 4, or -18 C.Tocopherol tissue content reflected dietary levels; the fatty acid composition of muscle triglycerides was significantly affected by the dietary fat but that of phospholipids was influenced only slightly by the different diets.Both oxidative and lipolytic changes were greater in leg muscle than in breast muscle. High dietary tocopherol levels resulted in decreased oxidation on storage of meat tissues as did feeding of a more saturated fat diet. Diets did not influence the rate of hydrolysis of phospholipids, but differences in the free fatty acid concentrations were found, presumably due to increased oxidation in the soybean oil, low tocopherol diet.The concentration of conjugable oxidation products was directly correlated with initial polyunsaturated fatty acid concentrations and inversely widi tocopherol concentrations. (

Samples from turkey breast and thigh muscle were taken from freshly slaughtered birds under sterile conditions and stored at 37, 4 or -18°C for up to 24 months.Changes in lipid fractions, fatty acids compositions and oxidised products were determined at intervals. Lipolysis of phospholipids was observed at 37 and at 4°C and to a small extent at -18"C, with little change in triglyceride levels. Free fatty acid levels in general increased as phospholipids decreased. Oxodienes and conjugable oxidation products increased with time of storage, the latter products being negatively correlated with phospholipid concentrations. Changes in the ratio of tetraene to triene conjugated oxidation products formed indicated that some preferential oxidation of fatty acids more unsaturated than linoleic acid was occurring initially and this was followed by an increase in the proportion of dienes being oxidised. Both lipolysis and oxidation were faster in thigh than in breast muscle (P < 0.01) in the stored meat andinin-vitrosystems.It is concluded that lipolysis and oxidation interact in the degradation of lipids during storage of turkey meat.

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