Silvia Del bianco
Dietary supplementation with different tannins to improve lamb meat flavor and quality
Supervisor: prof. Edi Piasentier
Meat and meat products represent an important source of protein in human diet, and their quality varies according to intrinsic and extrinsic parameters that can sometimes be shaped to make a product more desirable. This would allow the meat sector to better satisfy consumer expectations, demands and needs.
Lamb meat possesses such a peculiar flavour that it is often referred to as “sheep meat” or “sheepy” flavor. This typical odour has been attributed mainly to the presence of some branched chain FAs (4-methyl octanoic and 4-methyl nonanoic acids), skatole (3-methyl-indole) and indole that are compounds deriving from the degradation of tryptophan in the digestive tract.
These compounds are found in the adipose tissues of animals and can be controlled through feeding strategies. Particularly, tannins are bioactive compounds able to interfere with protein and lipid metabolism in the rumen, by forming undegradable complexes with dietary proteins and by modulating several bacterial activities, including the biohydrogenation of polyunsaturated fatty acids and are claimed to mitigate the pastoral flavor of sheep meat.
This study on dietary supplementation with different tannins is the first research contribution to my PhD project, the general aim of wich is to investigate the effect of innovative husbandry strategies on meat quality, carryng out different analysis from molecular processes to consumer perception.
Biography and contacts
Silvia Del Bianco was born in 1987 in Motta di Livenza (TV) – Italy. In 2014 she graduated as a Master of Nutrition and Animal Resources at the University of Udine (110/110 cum laude).
In November 2016 she started the doctoral course at the PhD school “Agriculture Science and Biotechnology”, XXXII cycle, at the University of Udine.