Table 1.
Carcass characteristics, pH24h, temperature24, colour measurements and cooking loss of lamb slaughtered in the small-scale system (n = 10) and large-scale system (n = 10/n = 8 1; means ± stdev).
| Parameters | Small-Scale | Large-Scale | SEM 2 | p-Value 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carcass characteristics | ||||
| Hot carcass weight (kg) | 19.8 ± 1.2 | 19.8 ± 1.7 | 0.46 | 0.9580 |
| Cold carcass weight (kg) | 19.4 ± 1.1 | 19.3 ± 1.7 | 0.46 | 0.9039 |
| Carcass weight loss (%) 4 | 2.44 ± 0.6 | 2.74 ± 0.2 | 0.13 | 0.1476 |
| Conformation score 5 | 3.9 ± 0.3 | 4.0 ± 0.5 | 0.13 | 0.5911 |
| Fatness score 6 | 3.5 a ± 0.5 | 2.3 b ± 0.5 | 0.16 | 0.0002 |
| pH24 7 | 5.65 ± 0.1 | 5.63 ± 0.1 | 0.04 | 0.7118 |
| Temperature24 (°C) 8 | 4.3 ± 0.6 | 5.0 ± 1.0 | 0.25 | 0.0986 |
| Meat quality attributes | ||||
| L* | 36.5 a ± 1.5 | 38.3 b ± 1.4 | 0.47 | 0.0073 |
| a* | 18.8 ± 2.2 | 20.2 ± 1.0 | 0.51 | 0.4928 |
| b* | 4.2 ± 1.4 | 4.9 ± 0.7 | 0.44 | 0.5500 |
| Cooking loss (%) | 14 ± 3.4 | 16 ± 2.4 | 1.01 | 0.1231 |
| WBSF (N) 9 | 49 ± 15.3 | 43 ± 9.4 | 4.22 | 0.9651 |
1 Regarding large-scale abattoir n = 10 for carcass characteristics; n = 8 for meat quality attributes. 2 Standard error of the mean. 3 Differences considered significant at p < 0.05 and tending towards significance at 0.05 < p ≤ 0.10. a,b = Mean values within rows with different superscripts differ significantly. 4 Difference between hot and cold carcass weight (%). 5 Scoring into five classes, with five being the highest (very good conformation) and one being the lowest (very poor conformation). 6 Scoring into six classes, with six being the highest (very high fat) and one being the lowest (very low fat). 7 pH at 24 h after slaughter. 8 Temperature at 24 h after slaughter. 9 Warner–Bratzler shear force measured in Newton.