Thirty-six whole male lambs were used, being twenty-four of Santa Inês breed and twelve of Bergamácia breed, which weighed 15kg at the very beginning of the experiment, and were randomized allocated into slaughtering weight groups (SWG) of 15, 25, 35 and 45kg. The objective of this work was to evaluate the pH post-mortem decline, color (CIEL* a* b*), cooking weight loss (CWL) and shearing force (SF) in the longissimus dorsi (LD) and semimembranosus (SM) muscles. The examined parameters were submitted to a regression analysis. The value of pH for both muscles was expressed by regression equation of exponential type, presenting a fast fall in the first hours, followed by stabilization. The LD muscle glycolisis rate was found to develop more quickly with an increase in weight. The analysis for color components for both examined muscles presented the same behavior. The breed Bergamacia presented larger index lightness (L*), that is to say, larger brilliance. The value of L* decreased, the red content (a*) increased and the yellow content (b*) linearly decreased as the weight increased. The general analysis for color components had indicated that lamb becomes darker with weight increase. The results of CWL and SF analyses were similar in both breeds and SWG, the values for CWL were 28.0±2.5% (LD) and 30.5±4.1% (SM) and for SF 2.6±0.6kg (LD) and 2.8±0.7kg.
lamb; meat; quality
