Edible quality of Lanzhou fat-tailed sheep in different gender and anatomical regions

The research aimed to analyze the edible quality traits of Lanzhou fat- tailed sheep in different gender and anatomical regions. Small fat- tail sheep were chosen as comparison. The results showed that significant ( p <0.05) differences between wether and ewe sheep or longissimus dorsi and leg muscle existed for many edible quality traits, such as L*value, a*value, b*value, water loss rate, cooking rate, shearing force and marbling score.Compared to small fat-tail sheep, the water loss rate and shearing force values of Lanzhou fat-tailed sheep were lower than small fat- tail sheep ( p < 0.05) . There were significant ( p < 0.05) differences between different gender and anatomical regions of Lanzhou fat- tailed sheep for hardness, springing, cohesiveness, adhesiveness and chewiness values.The hardness and adhesiveness of Lanzhou fat-tailed sheep were lower than small fat-tail sheep, while cohesiveness was higher than small fat-tail sheep ( p < 0.05) .In conclusion, the muscle of Lanzhou fat-tailed sheep had good meat color, good meat tenderness and good processing quality.