Effect of post mortem temperatures and modified atmospheres packaging on shelf life of suckling lamb meat

Abstract The effect of different post-mortem temperature treatments (conventional: 3 ± 1 °C for 24 h post-mortem versus slow: 12 ± 2 °C for the first 7 h and 3 ± 1 °C until 24 h post-mortem) and different modified atmospheres of packaging (20/70/10% CO 2 /O 2 /N 2 versus vacuum) was evaluated on forelegs of suckling lamb during 18 days of display at 4 °C. The results of the present study showed that slow post-mortem temperature treatment applied to suckling lamb carcasses had no adverse effect on the quality of forelegs packaged in comparison to the conventional post-mortem treatment. The packaging method had an effect (P