Effect of oregano essential oil and benzoic acid supplementation to a low-protein diet on meat quality, fatty acid composition, and lipid stability of longissimus thoracis muscle in pigs.

backgroundConsumers are becoming increasingly interested in food containing appropriately high concentration of intramuscular fat (IMF) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The supplementation of feed with antioxidants decreases degradation of lipids in muscles thereby enhances nutritional and sensory properties of meat. Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of adding oregano essential oil (OEO) and benzoic acid (BA) to low-protein, amino acid-supplemented diets on meat quality, sensory profile, fatty acid composition, and lipid oxidation of longissimus thoracis (LT) muscle in pigs.

methodsIn Exp. 1, 21 barrows were housed in metabolism cages and randomly allotted to 1 of 3 diets. The three diets were normal protein diet (NPD), medium protein diet (MPD) and low protein diet (LPD) with 1% and 2% less than NPD, respectively. In Exp. 2, 36 barrows were randomly divided into three experimental groups, namely, NPD, LPD, and identical LPD supplemented with blends of OEO (250 mg/kg feed) and BA (1000 mg/kg feed) (LPOB) groups.

resultsNo significant effects of diets on meat quality were observed in Exp. 1. The b*

conclusionsThese findings suggest that growing-finishing pigs fed with a low-protein, amino acid-supplemented diet show a high content of intramuscular fat in the longissimus thoracis muscle. Dietary LPOB enhances the anti-oxidative status by improving antioxidative capacity but deteriorates the sensory attributes by decreasing IMF content of meat.