Effect of breed, chilling duration and processed product on the quality characteristics of mutton

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of breed, chilling duration and processed product on the quality characteristics of mutton. A total of nine (9) mature rams of 12 months of age (25 Kg) managed on the same system were used. The animals were kept for 24 hours where only water was provided to clear the gut content before slaughter. The experiment was carried out in a factorial arrangement (3 x 3 x 3) of a completely randomized design consisting of three breeds of sheep (Balami, Uda and Yankasa), three chilling durations (0, 24 and 48 hours) and three processed products (Balangu, Tsire and Tukunya). The result revealed that there was no significant (P>0.05) effect of breed on proximate composition of fresh mutton. There was significant (P<0.05) effect of processed product on the proximate composition of mutton. Moisture content was higher in Balangu (54.93 %), followed by Tukunya (51.74 %) and lower in Tsire (41.00 %). Crude protein content was higher in Balangu (33.83 %), followed by Tukunya (29.63 %) which was at par wih Tsire (29.51 %). Ash content was higher in Tsire (6.61 %), followed by Balangu (5.71 %) and lower in Tukunya (3.69 %). Significant (P<0.05) chilling duration effect was obtained for bacteria count which was higher at 0 hours (2.25 x 103 cfu/g) chilling, followed by 24 hours (1.86 x 103 cfu/g) chilling. The same trend was observed for coliform count in which higher value was obtained at 0 hours (4.49 x 102 cfu/g) chilling, followed by 24 hours (3.04 x 102 cfu/g) chilling and 48 hours (2.93 x 102 cfu/g) chilling. Sensory properties of mutton from different breed differed significantly (P<0.05) among processed products. The overall accepatability indicates that Tsire (7.60) product was more acceptable, followed by Tukunya (7.20) product while Balangu (6.86) product was less acceptable. The microbial count obtained from the study was within the acceptable range (< 3.5 log HACCP 2002). It can be concluded that processed meat products (Tsire, Balangu and Tukunya) obtained from different breeds of Nigerian sheep (Balami, Uda and Yankasa) were not homogenous in their proximate composition. It is therefore recommended that fresh mutton should be chilled for 24 to 48 hours with little or no bacteria while fresh meat from the three breed of sheep (Balami, Uda and Yankasa) can be chilled for 24 to 48 hours with little or no bacteria and can be processed into different products (Tsire, Balangu and Tukunya).