Quality traits and lipid composition of meat from crossbreed Santa Ines ewes fed diets including crushed crambe

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the replacement of soybean meal by crushed crambe on the qualitative characteristics, lipids, and chemical composition of the meat from crossbred Santa Ines ewes. These animals presented an initial body score of 2.5, were finished in confinement for 60 days, fed diets containing crushed crambe replacing 0, 33, 67, and 100% of soybean meal, and slaughtered with a body condition score of 3.5. The statistical design was completely randomized, with slaughter weight used as a covariate in the model. Sensory evaluations were performed in the gluteobiceps muscle by untrained evaluators (n = 100) of different ages. There was no significant effect for color, shear force, or cooking loss of the semimembranosus muscle. The replacement levels of soybean meal influenced only the moisture content, with a linear increase, and the ash content, which decreased linearly. For saturated fatty acids, there was linear effect on capric acid (C10:0), and a linear reduction of myristic (C14:0), pentadecanoic (C15:0), and heptadecanoic (C17:0) fatty acids. There was no influence of the inclusion level of crushed crambe on monounsaturated fatty acids. A linear increase was observed in the polyunsaturated fatty acids linoleic acid (C18:2n-6) and eicosatrienoic acid (C20:3n-3). For the sensory attributes, there were differences only for the variables flavor and tenderness, in which meat was considered more flavorful if it was from animals fed 0% crushed crambe, with an average of 1.6, and considered more tender if it was from animals finished with 15% crushed crambe in the diet, scoring an average of 1.7. Crushed crambe can be considered a promising alternative in the feeding of ewes finished in feedlot, replacing soybean meal in the diet, showing satisfactory results with respect to meat quality.