A review on nutritional composition, health benefits, and technological interventions for improving consumer acceptability of camel meat: an ethnic food of Middle East

Abstract

Camel meat is an ethnic food consumed across the arid regions of Middle East and North-East Africa. It can be a potential alternative red meat for human consumption worldwide. Camel meat is nutritionally as good as any conventional meat source, in fact has an edge over beef or lamb due to its low intramuscular fat, low cholesterol content, and high iron content. Camel meat quality is a function of age, breed, and type of muscle consumed. Various techniques such as aging, low-temperature storage, and pre-treatment with antioxidants improve the quality and shelf life of camel meat. Active packaging and fermentation are promising techniques to improve consumer acceptance and shelf-life of camel meat. Very limited research is available about the use of novel pre-treatments, packaging, and processing techniques that can improve the consumer acceptability of camel meat. Due to restricted use of camel meat and its products to ethnic regions, a review highlighting the nutritional potential and strategies to improve the quality of camel meat and its products may enhance its global acceptance as an alternative source of red meat.