EFFECTS OF POST-MORTEM PROCESSINGS AND FREEZING ON WATER HOLDING CAPACITY, WARNER BRATZLER VALUE AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF CHEVON

This study was carried out to investigate the effects of post-mortem processing methods and freezing on Water Holding Capacity (WHC), Shear force Value, proximate composition and pH of goat meat. Nine Red Sokoto buck goats of 10 – 12 months old and of weight between 18 – 20 kg were used for this study. They were purchased, stabilized for two weeks on cowpea chaff and a standard diet, fasted for 16 hours and slaughtered. Their carcasses were randomly assigned to and processed with scalding, skinning and singeing methods, eviscerated, washed and fabricated into primal cuts. Meat samples (semi membranosus muscle) were removed from frozen leg cuts on 0,7,14 and 21 days to determine parameters. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) for a 4x3 factorial experiment The Results showed that WHC was higher (p<0.05) in scalded meat (72.18%), least (p<0.05) in singed meat and decreased (p<0.05) as freezing period increased (p<0.05). Shear force value was higher (p<0.05) in singed meat, least (p<0.05) in skinned meat, (56.41%) and decreased (p<0.05) as freezing period increased (p<0.05). Moisture and fat were higher (p<0.05) in scalded meat, ash and pH were higher (p<0.05) in singed meat, while skinned meat gave highest (p<0.05) protein (20.47 %) all decreased as freezing period increased except pH. Skinning furnished higher attributes of frozen chevon measured in this study. Also freezing of goat meat for 21 days was adequate, beyond which the wholesomeness and acceptability of the meat could be affected as the meat attributes evaluated were decreasing.