In developed countries, people tend

In developed countries, people tend to exercise control over their fat intake and fat composition of foods. Therefore, one of the main aims of meat researchers is to produce dietetic and healthy meat to reduce the saturated FA and increase the unsaturated FA in fat deposits. In regards to fat content, Table 1 shows that rabbit meat is characterised by lower fat (on average 6.8 g/100 g fresh meat) and calories (on average 618 kJ/100 g fresh meat) compared with red meats. In regards to the cholesterol contents, among the more popular meats, rabbit meat contains the lowest levels (on average 53 mg/100 g fresh meat) (Lukefahr et al., 1989; Parigi Bini et al., 1992b) (Table 2). According to fat composition, rabbit meat could be a very useful food in human dietetics (Table 2). Rabbit meat possesses a relatively high content of polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) (Romans et al., 1974; Ouhayoun et al., 1985 and Ouhayoun et al., 1987a; Alasnier and Gandemer, 1998) and a very low FA-n6/FA-n3 ratio (Castellini et al., 1999). However, increasing the degree of unsaturation of animal tissues by dietary manipulation accelerates oxidative deterioration during meat processing and storage. Since rabbit meat is commonly rich in long chain PUFA, this may further limit the shelf-life of cooked meat (Lee and Ahn, 1977; Fernàndez-Esplà and O’Neill, 1993; Lopez-Bote et al., 1997). The link between lipid oxidation and human health is an important issue in meat research, too. Lipid oxidation is one of the main mechanisms responsible for characteristic flavour development but it can also lead to warmed-over flavour development, and the generation of cholesterol oxides (Gandemer, 1998). With this in mind, it is important to establish the relationship between the presence of antioxidants (mainly vitamin E) and dietary fats in animal feed and meat and meat-product stability, shelf-life, sensorial properties and toxic compound generation.