Effect of selenium and vitamin E supplementation on quality of fatty goose liver and chemical composition of breast muscle

Goose diet was supplemented with organic selenium (0.3 mg/animal/day) or with a-tocopherol (80 mg/kg feed) during a 19-days force feeding period. Supplementation of the force-feeding feed with organic selenium preparation improved the quality of liver. The effect of vitamin E supplementation was unfavourable because the ratio of extremely large livers increased significantly. Chemical composition of the liver and its roasting loss as well as chemical composition of breast muscle was not influenced by the selenium, but partly by the vitamin E treatment. Selenium supplementation impaired while vitamin E supplementation improved the oxidative status of both liver and muscle at the applied dose. That effect is less important from the point of view of the product quality, but it is not negligible from food safety point of view. It was also found that the oxidative status of meat did not affect the glutathione redox system during storage.