The aim of the present study was to determine the increase in shelf life of fresh Barbarine
lamb’s meat due to the effect of rosemary essential oils (RE) dietary. Thirty-two Barbarine
lambs (19.9 kg body weight (BW)) were divided into 2 homogeneous groups receiving 50%
dried alfalfa and 50% concentrate. Two types of concentrate were used, the Control (C) and
the experimental, which corresponds to C with 0.06% of RE. At the end of the experiment
(60 days), all animals were slaughtered. Lipid oxidation (TBARS) and color coordinates of
longissimus dorsi (LD) of fresh lamb meat were analyzed on days 1, 3, 7 and 9.The RE incorporation
has not affected the ultimate pH and cooking losses. TBARS values significantly
increased for both treatments with storage time without any significant effect of regimen.
At the ninth day of storage, meat of RE group tended to have higher redness (a*) and lower
yellowness (b*) values (11.49 and 5.35 for RE vs. 10.30 and 5.58 for C). Lightness (L*) of
meat from both treatments was in the range of acceptability (42–38) throughout the storage
period. Panelists reported no significant effect of RE addition on the eating quality of
lamb meat which was generally acceptable. The results showed that the dose rate of RE
used in the present study did not affect lipid oxidation and had no significant effect against
lamb meat discoloration across the storage period.