Key factors involved in lamb quality from farm to fork in Europe

Abstract

World lamb consumption is approximately 2 kg per capita with large variations between continents, e.g., 17 kg in Oceania vs. 0.7 kg in North America. With less than one million tonnes, the international trade of sheep meat contributes to a small percentage of the total meat exchanged between countries. On the other hand, lamb represents the highest rate of species trading in relation to the total sheep meat produced. It is therefore likely to find a wide variability of different lamb products in the same market, and that the conservation procedures (such as refrigeration, packaging or freezing), chemical composition, especially the fat due to its implication in human health, flavour development and juiciness perception (affected, i.e., by the feeding or the age or slaughter weight of the animal) and acceptability (based on culinary background) could be considered important indicators of this advantageous situation. In this paper some studies related to the aforementioned indicators are discussed. © 2013 Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.