Color and Lipid Oxidation of Meat from Young Bulls Finished in Feedlot Supplemented with Clove or Cinnamon Essential Oils

This study examined color and lipid oxidation of meat from young bulls finished in feedlot supplemented with clove (84.5% of eugenol) or cinnamon (78.8% of cinnamaldehyde) essential oils. Forty bulls (¹/₂ Brown Swiss - ¹/₂ Nellore), 10 ± 2.2 month-old and with initial average BW of 219.0 ± 11.7 kg, were used in a complete randomized design, assigned to individual pens. The diet consisted of 90% concentrate and 10% of sugar cane pellets. The young bulls were randomly assigned to the groups: no clove or cinnamon oil (CON or control), CLO35 inclusion of 3500 mg/animal/d of clove oil, CLO70 inclusion of 7000 mg/animal/d of clove oil, CIN35 inclusion of 3500 mg/animal/d of cinnamon oil, and CIN70 inclusion 7000 mg/animal/d of cinnamon oil. After 187 d the bulls reached an average of 443.5 ± 26.2 kg BW and were transported to a slaughterhouse. The carcasses were stored in a chilling chamber at 4^oC. After 24 h, Longissimus muscle samples were collected for analysis. Three steaks (two-half centimeters thick) were cut, packed in polystyrene trays over wrapped with a retractile film (oxygen permeable) and stored in expositor (4ºC) during 1, 7 and 14 d. The color was evaluated using a Minolta colorimeter (CM 700). The lipid oxidation was evaluated by thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances protocol, and the results were expressed in mg of malondialdehyde (MDA) per kg/meat. The data were assessed via analysis of variance using GLM procedures with SPSS v21.0 and the averages were compared at the 5% level of significance. The inclusion of oil in diets did not effect the color on 1, 7 and 14 d, the average values were 40.0, 40.27 and 32.05 for lightness (L*), 11.73, 16.08 and 7.6 for redness (a*), and 11.82, 14.91 and 7.98, for yellowness (b*). The concentration of MDA in meat on 1 and 14 d of storage was not influenced by the treatments (P=0.832 and P=0.183, respectively) . However, on the 7 d, the MDA concentration of meat were lower (P=0.001) for animals from groups fed with diets supplemented with both oils, compared to animals from control group (0.681, 0.594, 0.540, 0.592, 0.573 mg/kg for CON, CLO35, CLO70, CIN35, CIN70, respectively). The essential oils added to the cattle diet did not alter the color parameters of meat and were efficient in the protection of the lipid oxidation.