Effect of Age and Breed on Carcass and Meat Quality Characteristics of Beni-Guil and Ouled-Djellal Sheep Breeds

Table 2

Effect of breed and animal’s age at slaughter on ultimate pH and meat colour of Beni-Guil and Ouled-Djellal sheep breeds from eastern Morocco (means ± SD).

Parameters	Beni-Guil (BG)			Ouled-Djellal (ODj)
	Age 1 (n = 30)	Age 2 (n = 30)	Age 3 (n = 30)	Age 1 (n = 39)	Age 2 (n = 39)	Age 3 (n = 40)
pH ultimate	5.82 ± 0.05^a	5.77 ± 0.08^ab	5.70 ± 0.07^b	5.81 ± 0.07^ab	5.75 ± 0.02^ab	5.72 ± 0.07^ab
L (lightness)	41.59 ± 0.42	41.89 ± 0.18	40.89 ± 0.88	41.2 ± 0.59	41.36 ± 0.50	40.89 ± 0.88
a (redness)	20.95 ± 0.85^a	21.11 ± 0.42^a	22.73 ± 0.83^c	20.81 ± 0.75^a	21.3 ± 0.69^ab	22.28 ± 0.48^bc
b (yellowness)	7.04 ± 1.05	7.07 ± 0.69	7.37 ± 0.46	7.04 ± 1.05	6.81 ± 0.47	6.96 ± 0.71
Chromaticity	22.10 ± 1.05^ab	22.26 ± 0.54^ab	23.89 ± 0.81^c	21.96 ± 0.81^a	22.36 ± 0.62^ab	23.34 ± 0.51^bc
Hue angle°	18.57 ± 1.20	18.51 ± 1.56	17.96 ± 2.25	18.68 ± 2.67	17.72 ± 1.43	17.34 ± 1.70
a /b	2.97 ± 0.41	2.99 ± 0.27	3.08 ± 0.21	2.95 ± 0.49	3.12 ± 0.25	3.20 ± 0.36

^{a, b, c}Values with different superscript letters are significantly () different within row. Scales of L , a , b , chroma, and Hue: a and b : −60 to 60; L : 0 to 100; chromaticity: 0–60; hue: 0–360°; A1: six months to one year; A2: between one and two years; A3: between two and four years.