Context Diet is one the most important pre-slaughter factors that potentially influences meat quality, but its effect on flavour quality remains equivocal. Aim The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of diet composition on the flavour and sensory quality of meat from Texel × Scottish Blackface ram lambs. Methods Groups of 11 lambs were assigned to one of the following four dietary treatments for 54 days before slaughter: a concentrate containing barley, maize and soybean (C treatment); C supplemented with a saturated fat source (Megalac®); C supplemented with protected linseed oil; a by-product-based diet containing citrus pulp, distillers grain and soybean. Samples of cooked M. longissimus thoracis et lumborum were subjected to volatile analysis involving solid-phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and to sensory analysis performed by a trained panel. Key results Univariate analysis of volatile data and sensory data showed few differences due to dietary treatments. However, multivariate analysis of the volatile data, and to a lesser extent the sensory profile data, showed potential to discriminate between lamb meat samples, on the basis of the different dietary treatments. Conclusions The inclusion of certain dietary ingredients in the diets of lambs to enhance the nutritional profile of lamb meat (through increasing n-3 fatty acid content) or to reduce feed-formulation costs (through the use of by-products) has minor effects on sensory quality but permits some discrimination between dietary treatments following the application of multivariate analysis. Implications The application of the findings is in allowing lamb producers to use alternative feed types without affecting the sensory quality of lamb negatively, but with the potential to discriminate lamb meat on the basis of its dietary background.

中文翻译：

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挥发性和感官分析，以区分喂食不同浓缩饲料的羔羊的肉

背景 饮食是可能影响肉质量的最重要的屠宰前因素之一，但其对风味质量的影响仍然模棱两可。目的 本研究的目的是研究日粮成分对 Texel × Scottish Blackface 公羊羔羊肉风味和感官品质的影响。方法 11 只羔羊在屠宰前 54 天被分配到以下四种饮食处理之一：含有大麦、玉米和大豆的浓缩物（C 处理）；C 补充饱和脂肪源 (Megalac®)；C 补充受保护的亚麻籽油；一种以副产品为基础的饮食，含有柑橘果肉、酒糟和大豆。煮熟的 M 样品。对胸最长肌和腰椎进行挥发性分析，包括固相微萃取，然后是气相色谱-质谱法，并由受过训练的小组进行感官分析。主要结果 对挥发性数据和感官数据的单变量分析表明，饮食处理造成的差异很小。然而，对挥发性数据的多变量分析以及在较小程度上的感官特征数据显示，根据不同的饮食处理，有可能区分羊肉样品。结论 在羊肉日粮中加入某些日粮成分以提高羊肉的营养成分（通过增加 n-3 脂肪酸含量）或降低饲料配方成本（通过使用副产品）对羊肉的影响较小。感官质量，但允许在应用多变量分析后对饮食处理进行一些区分。启示 研究结果的应用是允许羊肉生产商使用替代饲料类型，而不会对羊肉的感官质量产生负面影响，但有可能根据其饮食背景来区分羊肉。