Physicochemical Quality Attributes, Fatty Acids Profiles, Sensory Properties, and Microstructure of Rabbit Meat Fed with Agro By-Products Extracts

This research aims to investigate the dietary supplementation effect of agro by-products such as pomegranate peel extract (POM) orange peel extract (ORA) and corn silk extract (CS) in comparison to control (CON) supplied with a basal diet on changes in physicochemical quality attributes that include color, pH, water holding capacity WHC, cooking loss CL%, shear force, fatty acids profiles, sensory properties, and microstructure of cooked rabbit meat. Proximate compositional for different rabbit meat was carried out and the highest protein content recorded by ORA rabbit meat was 17.18%. The ultimate pH 24were determined in longissimus dorsi muscle (LD) muscle pH values are in the average range for rabbit meat. The highest pH (p<0.05) was recorded in the control group 6.29 while the pH decreased significantly (p<0.05) in POM LD muscles (5.87) followed by CS and ORA. ORA samples achieved the highest (p<0.05) value of lightness 63.75. The POM sample has the higher value of yellowness at 4.44 while the ORA was the lowest at 2.95 followed by CS at 3.06 and the control at 3.19. This indicates that ORA achieved the highest oxidation stability followed by CS and control. There is a non-significant difference (p >0.05) among all tested groups in water holding capacity in LD muscles at about 30 % and the higher score of WHC was achieved by control at 33.03 %. It was noticed that significant relation between pH and WHC (increase in pH, increase in WHC. Cooking loss (CL %) of rabbit meat samples ranged from 21.97 to 28.80% in samples cooked by boiling. Our result indicated that the CS rabbit meat sample recorded the highest cooking loss 28.80% and POM was the lowest in the cooking loss sample 21.97. There is a significant difference between all the samples. The lowest shear force recorded by ORA, CON, and CS was 23.04, 25.64, and 28.34 respectively. The highest shear force score is POM. ORA has the lowest shear force which indicates the tenderness of the meat and that was confirmed by the microstructure figure of the ORA-cooked meat. According to the findings from sensory qualities and instrumental evaluation of shear force and color, the consumers showed a preference for the ORA sample with a higher significant difference between the control and CS rabbit meat samples with a non-significant difference.