4. Conclusions
Breed influenced consumer appraisal of meat from
lambs legs, although its effect was slightly less important
than slaughter live weight. Both pre-slaughter factors
should be taken into account in the specifications of
quality labels in an attempt to offer consumers a product
with homogeneous characteristics, which could help to
increase consumer loyalty, especially if the product is
similar from one purchase to the next.
Ageing times modified consumer perception of lamb
meat. Intermediate to long ageing tended to improve
tenderness with no remarkable reduction in flavour
quality. Ageing was even more important on muscles
that are not stretched (GB and SM). Since GB and
SM muscles make up a considerable percentage of the
weight of lambs legs and ageing did not decrease consumer
appraisal for ST, intermediate to long times of
ageing (4–16 days) are recommended.