Abstract:

Our objective of this study was to investigate changes in the fatty acid composition of fresh rabbit meat during
chilled storage (4 ℃). Six 90-day-old and six 150-day-old (3 males and 3 females) French Rex rabbits were subjected to a
comparative analysis of changes in the fatty acid composition of leg muscle and dorsal muscle packaged in oxygen-permeable
bags during 6 days of storage at 4 ℃ in the dark. The effect of sex, feeding time and body location on the fatty acid composition
of Rex rabbit meat was examined through partial least squares (PLS) regression analysis. The results showed that the fatty
acid composition of both triglycerides and phospholipids changed obviously during chilled storage which was manifested by a
decrease in the percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids and an increase in the percentages of saturated and monounsaturated
fatty acids, and phospholipids indicated more marked changes in fatty acid composition. The PLS2 analysis indicated that
the fatty acid composition was changed by 51%, 23% and 12% by sex, feeing time and body location, respectively. The
PLS1 analysis demonstrated that the amounts of C16:0 and C18:2 in triglycerides and C18:1, C20:4, C18:2 and C18:3 in phospholipids
significantly varied during chilled storage depending on sex and feeing time. Regression models with good prediction capability
were built to predict the sex and feeing time of rabbit meat based on the amounts of the two fatty acids in triglycerides and the
four ones in phospholipids. Therefore, the fatty acid composition of Rex rabbit meat varied mainly depending on sex, followed
by feeding time, while the role of muscle location was very limited.

Key words: Rex rabbit, chilled storage, PLS, fatty acid composition