Fatty acid composition of lamb meat from Italian and German local breeds

•Lamb meat quality of three Italian and German breeds was evaluated.•Meat of lambs reared in extensive system had the lowest SFA content.•Meat of lambs reared in extensive system had the highest n-3 PUFA content.•Meat from the Italian Sambucana lambs presented the lowest cholesterol content.•Meat from the three breeds was of high quality with low fat content. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the quality characteristics, chemical composition and lipid profile of lamb meat from Italian (Biellese and Sambucana) and German (Texel-Merino-Blackhead-Charollais [TMBC]) breeds reared in extensive and semi-extensive production systems. Meat samples from 89 animals were analysed. The meat of the lambs from semi-intensively reared Biellese, and extensively reared Sambucana and TMBC breeds produced lean meat, with slightly higher intramuscular fat content in TMBC. The latter also produced meat of darker colour (P