Effect of fat‐enriched diets on rabbit meat fatty acid composition

The effects of beef tallow‐, soya and sunflower olein‐ and soya bean oil‐enriched (3%) diets on the chemical and fatty acid composition of total, a polar and polar lipids of rabbit meat have been studied. No significant differences ( P > 0.05) in the meat chemical composition were observed between groups. However, a large effect of the diet on the total and apolar lipid fatty acids was found, with C18:1 and C18:2 the most affected fatty acids. The influence of the diets on the fatty acids of the polar fraction was less marked. It is concluded that the enrichment of the rabbit diet with either soya and sunflower oleins or soya bean oil allows the production of rabbit meat with a higher unsaturation degree than is obtained by using conventional diets, which constitutes an important nutritional benefit to the human being.