4. Conclusions
According to the results found in the present study on light-lamb meat quality characteristics, we can conclude the following: (1) in general, this study support the well known effects of modified atmosphere type on SF values, colour coordinates and lipid oxidation since MA-CO promoted more tender meat, with the highest lipid and colour stability. (2) The type of stunning affected the physical characteristics (pH, losses water and SF) and for light lamb meat stunned with a minor CO2 concentration (80%) and longer time (90 s), less tenderness in both types of packaging in all ageing times analysed was reported. (3) In general, the gas stunning system did not affect lipid oxidation a fact which contrasts with the results found in meat packed under aerobic conditions (Vergara et al., 2009). (4) Finally, we conclude that the results of the present study and previous ones on suckling lamb (Bórnez et al., 2009c and Bórnez et al., 2010) indicated that the developments of the main characteristics depend on the lamb age at slaughter, especially for pH, lipid oxidation and SF.