Influence of vegetable oil sources on quality parameters of broiler meat

An experiment was conducted to assess the effect of using different vegetable oil sources in diets on performance of broilers, meat quality parameters, fatty acid (FA) composition of tissues and sensoric characteristics of broiler meat. A diet enriched with 8% of vegetable fat was fed to the birds the whale growth period of 35 days. As fats were used: soybean oil (SO), rapeseed oil (RO), sunflower oil (SFO) and linseed oil (LO). Texture, water holding capacity and cooking losses of meat were determined as quality parameters. The FA profiles of abdominal fat and thigh samples were analysed. TBAR's were determined in the abdominal fat and in the breast muscle. A sensoric evaluation of breast and thigh muscles was done. Meat quality parameters almost did not show any differences between treatments, although juiciness of samples from the RO treatment was lower in comparison to the other treatments. TBArs values were higher in LO and SO fresh abdominal fat and in 12-months stored breast samples in comparison to fresh samples of breast muscle. The highest omega-3 PUFA level was observed in LO samples for both kind of tissues. Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5 omega 3), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA, C22:5 omega 3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6 omega 3) content of the LO samples was higher, due to a possible conversion from its precursor, linolenic acid (LNA, C18:3 omega 3), which attributed to more than 50% of total fatty acids in that dietary treatment. In thighs, higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids were determined than in the abdominal fat samples. Thighs from SFO treatment showed the highest content of omega-6 FAs. The predominant omega 6 long chain PUFA was the arachidonic acid (Aa, C20:w6), due to the high amount of its precursor linoleic acid (LA, C18:2 omega 6) in the diet. A lower AA content was found in the samples from diets with the higher omega-3 FA content (LO, SO), confirming the competition established between both omega-3 and omega-6 precursors, LNA and LA, in synthesizing their long-chain derivatives. A low level of polyunsaturation could be identified by the sensory panelists, since the RO samples (rich in monounsaturated FA, MUFA) were identified as different in flavor in almost all the comparisons that were carried out.