As expected, there were significant differences among the treatments
in the α-tocopherol content of the LT muscle, except between
the ALF and VE10d treatments as was found by Ripoll et al. (2013). In
our study, α-tocopherol content was not measured in the SF. However,
it has been reported that there is a higherα-tocopherol accumulation in
adipose tissues than in skeletal muscles in different studies with meatproducing
animals (Lee et al., 2006; Liu et al., 1995). Tissue accumulation
of α-tocopherol in animals supplemented with vitamin E generally
depends on dose and feeding time (Alvarez et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2006).
As was reported in a previous study by Ripoll et al. (2013), feeding
lambs α-tocopherol enriched concentrate for at least 10 days of life or
grazing them on alfalfa drastically diminished the lipid oxidation of
the meat and therefore increased the shelf life. Furthermore, the greater
the vitamin E concentration in the muscle is, the later blooming and discoloration
occur.