Effect of dietary vitamin E supplementation on the characteristics of refrigerated and frozen rabbit meat

The effect of dietary alpha-tocopheryl acetate supplementation (50 vs 200 mg/kg diet) on some characteristics of rabbit meat, stored for 1 and 7 d at +4 degrees C, or 60 d at -18 degrees C was determined. Two groups of 40 male hybrid rabbits, each, were fed the diets from 35 to 84 days of age. Physical (pH, colour, water holding capacity, drip and cooking loss, shear force, moisture) and chemical traits (alpha-tocopherol, oxidative stability, fatty acid profile) of the Longissimus dorsi muscle were determined. The supplementation of 200 mg of alpha-tocopheryl acetate significantly improved some physical characteristics of the muscle but the major benefit regarded the increase of vitamin E and the related higher oxidative stability in both fresh and stored samples. Fresh meat in the supplemented group showed significantly higher Sigma n-3 and long chain n-3 fatty acids, with lower atherogenic and thrombogenic indexes. In stored meat the trend of fatty acids was the same but the effect of vitamin E was less manifest.