Evaluation of water buffalo's fatty acid composition and meat quality in the bolu region

Meat, as a source of protein, are the most consumed as animal food in Turkey as well as around the world, and this food is the main source of protein with high nutritional properties compared to other protein sources. The fact that buffalo meat has less fat and cholesterol than beef reveals that it has more benefits for public health. Unfortunately, buffalo meat is recently used only in buffalo meat products. It has been studied that using 10-30% of buffalo meat in sausage has positive results in terms of taste, aroma and color, and it is more preferred by consumer. In this study, fatty acid composition of water buffalo meat, which has positive effects on public health, is stuided and parameters of hot-cold carcass weight, chilling loss, skin weight, back-fat thickness, area, width and depth of Musculus Longissimus Dorsi, water holding capacity, cooking loss, Warner Bratzler shear force, pH, meat color, ash, moisture, dry matter, protein, fat for carcass-meat quality are evaluated. A total of 56 water buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis), consisting of 4 groups based on gender and age (younger than 2 years old and 2-4 years old), were used as animal material. In terms of meat quality, the lightness (L*) value of the young water buffalo and redness (a*) value of female water buffalo were higher than the others. Cooking loss in female was lower than the others. In terms of fatty acids composition, it was found that the amount of saturated fatty acid of male water buffalo was higher than females and the saturated fatty acid of young water buffalo was higher than older. In addition, the amount of monounsaturated fatty acid of female water buffalo was higher than males and polyunsaturated fatty acid of male water buffalo was higher than females. The polyunsaturated fatty acid/saturated fatty acid ratio, which has positive effects for human health, was also found lower than cattle, when compared to other studies' results.