SAMPLE PREPARATION AND STORAGE EFFECTS ON FATTY ACID PROFILE OF RABBIT LONGISSIMUS THORACIS ET LUMBORUM MUSCLE

Twenty-five Pannon White male rabbits reared and fed in similar conditions were slaughtered at 11 weeks of age. The longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscles (LTL; right and left) were removed at 24 h post-mortem and allocated to four sampling/storage treatments: the left side of LTL muscle was divided in half perpendicularly, with the posterior portion being analysed within one day (fresh), and the anterior portion vacuum packaged and stored for 1 mo at -20 degrees C (whole-frozen); the right LTL side was ground with half of the product vacuum packaged and frozen for 1 mo at -20 degrees C (ground-frozen), whereas the other half was freeze-dried, vacuum packaged, and stored for 1 mo at 4 degrees C (freeze-dried refrigerated). Treatments impacted percentages of total saturated (P<0.01), monounsaturated (P<0.05), and polyunsaturated fatty acids (P<0.001), whole-frozen treatment affecting the most the fatty acids profile of the meat. Method of preparation and storage of meat samples before performing fatty acid analysis had an impact on the percentage of specific fatty acids, which could render the precision of study-to-study comparisons less reliable.