Nutritional evaluation of the lipid fraction of Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus) tenderloin.

The meat lipid fraction of psoas major muscle from 20 adult (10 males and 10 females) feral Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus) was characterized by quantification of total fat, total cholesterol, vitamin E and fatty acid (FA) composition, including detailed trans octadecenoate isomers and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) isomeric profile. The total lipid content revealed a very lean meat (0.99 g/100g of meat), with total cholesterol content averaging 55.6 mg/100g of muscle. The FA profile displayed a very high PUFA level for ruminant meat (30.2g/100g FA). The 18:2 cis-9,trans-11 content was fairly low (0.26% of total FA) compared with other ruminant meats. The comparison of stags and hinds showed more similarities than differences. Nevertheless, hinds displayed superior contents of α-tocopherol and trans MUFA and a better n-6/n-3 ratio than stags.

Nutritional evaluation of the lipid fraction of feral wild boar (Sus scrofa scrofa) meat.

Consumer increasing demand for wild boar meat and scarceness of data on its lipid fraction justified this study. The psoas major muscle collected from 25 feral wild boars was used to quantify the total lipid, total cholesterol, fatty acid (FA) profile, and vitamin E homologues. Intramuscular fat and total cholesterol contents averaged 4.64 g/100g of meat and 56.9 mg/100g of meat, respectively. No differences were found in FA composition between groups, except for 20:5n-3 that was higher in youngsters. All groups presented small concentrations of rumenic acid in meat (CLA; 0.24% of total FA). FA profile showed considerable resemblance with pork, while the vitamin E profile is marked by high concentrations of both alpha- (17.4 ± 3.3 µg/g meat) and gamma-tocopherols (2.6 ± 1.3 µg/g meat) and by the presence of other vitamin E homologues not previously reported in wild boar meat.