Descriptive analysis of meat from young ruminants in Mediterranean systems

This paper describes the rigorous methodology used to establish a descripti ve panel and select ballot attributes to evaluate the sensory quality of me at from young ruminants. The work focused on sheep and cattle, which, in Sp ain as elsewhere in the Mediterranean area, are slaughtered at an early age to obtain light carcasses. The prescreening, screening, training and perfo rmance evaluation procedures proposed by Cross ct al. (1978) were used to s elect and train the panel. The nonredundant, most discriminant and frequent ly detected attributes of aroma, flavor and texture were determined, to con stitute the final ballot. The panel evaluated the sensory quality of two ca tegories of Spanish commercial lamb: lechal, or milk-fed lambs, slaughtered at 12 kg live weight, and ternasco, light lambs, slaughtered at 24 kg live weight, from the Lacha and Rasa Aragonesa breeds. As live weight was shown to have more effect on sensory quality than breed, each category had its o wn characteristic texture, aroma and flavor.