Texture parameters of ostrich (Struthio camelus) meat

• Grant number: 07/03266-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2007
• End date: November 30, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Ariel Antonio Mendes
• Grantee: Augusto Balog Neto
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The concern every time larger with an allied healthy feeding to the soft flavor and the softness, it turned the meat ostrich a product of great acceptance and present in the most refined menus of everybody. In the Brazilian market the first creators began their activities in 1995/1996 with the same objective of the world market, to create an option differentiated for the gastronomical section and a healthy alternative of consumption. With base in these aspects, the general objective of this project will be of evaluating the main parameters that determine the texture and the softness of the ostrich meat. For that the best technique of preparation of the samples will be standardized for the texture evaluation in the ostrich meat and later they will be appraised the pH, the moisture, the water retention capacity, cooking loss, the shear force, the index of fragmentation miofibrilar and quantification of the total collagen, thermosoluble and insoluble in four of the main muscles of commercial interest of ostriches (Gastrocnemius externus, Iliotibialis lateralis, Iliofibularis and Obturatorius medialis).