Effect of age on quality characteristics and composition of muscles of Sudanese camel (Camelus dromedarius)

This study was aimed to investigate the effect of camel age and muscle type on meat quality and composition of Longissimus thoracis, bicepsfemoris, semitendinosus and semimembranosus muscles. Selected muscles were randomly collected from 12 Sudanese (Camelus dromedarius) of two age groups: group one ((3-4 year-old) and group two (6-7 year-old) at the Tambol slaughterhouse, Al-Butana State, Sudan. Moisture, protein, fat and ash contents of freeze dried samples were determined. Meat quality parameters including muscle ultimate pH, shear force, expressed juice, cooking loss%, myofibril fragmentation index and colour lightness (L^∗), redness (a^∗) and yellowness (b^∗) were determined. There were significant differences in moisture, fat, and protein contents between muscles. The results also showed that old camel longissimus thoracis muscle had significantly higher fat content than the young one. The semimembranosus muscle sample from 6-7 year-old camel had significantly lower expressed juice than 3-4 year-old camel. The longissimus thoracis had the lowest and highest shear force and lightness values than other muscles. The semitendinosus had the highest shear force value, while semimembranosus had the lowest lightness than other muscle samples. This study indicated that composition and quality parameters varied among camel muscles and the knowledge of this variation allows for better marketing and processing of camel meat.