Effect of a flax seeds diet on lipid oxidation of raw and cooked poultry meat

Abstract : Enriching food with omega 3 is a largely explored way of improving nutritional quality of feedstuffs. Concerning fresh meat, supplementing the animal diet with natural omega 3 seems to be the best way. However, omega 3 are fragile compounds with a high susceptibility to lipid oxidation. In Reunion Island, a study called NUTRIVOL aimed to enrich poultry meat with omega 3 by providing the animals a diet enriched with flax seeds and vitamin E as antioxidant. For 3 different diets, 160 labelled yellow female chickens were raised. They were fed during 37 days with a classical diet and the last 18 days with the test diets (control without flax seeds or vitamin E enrichment, +9% flax seeds without vitamin E enrichment, and +9% fIax seeds with vitamin E enrichment). After slaughter, meat (thigh and breast) was analysed for lipid content and fatty acid composition. Lipid oxidation was evaluated by different methods after different refrigerated storage times (2 and 9 days for breast; 3 and 10 days for thigh) and after cooking under vacuum till 72°C (after 2 and 9 days of refrigerated storage for breast and after 13 days for thigh). (Résumé d'auteur)