Feeding Regimes and Processing Effect on Rabbit Meat Quality: Exploring the Sensory Categorical Profiles (Published)
Quality of rabbit meat product for consumers’ acceptability could be affected by the feed and processing method. This study aimed at evaluating the organoleptic quality of rabbit meat as affected by feed types and processing. Cooked and roasted meat from rabbits fed on three feeding regimes were sensory evaluated. Kruskal-Walis’s test showed that there exist significant difference in the rankings by the assessors for colour and aroma (H(19:0.05) = 34.76 and H(19:0.05) = 42.4) respectivly. Average median ranking of rabbit meat tenderness ranged between 27.7 for assessor A8 and 87.7 for assessor A5. Average ranking of the taste of the rabbit meat falls from 104.5 for assessor A12 to 24.5 for assessor A15. The overall acceptance of the rabbit meat by the assessor indicated that all the assessors (100%) accepted the rabbit meat. Roasting as processing method and use of combination of forage and concentrates as feeds impart good quality on the processed rabbit meat.
Keywords: Sensory Evaluation, cooking, feeding regime, rabbit, ranking, roasting