A Pilot Study on Fatty Acid Fingerprint Characteristics of Mutton in Inner Mongolia
The purpose of this study was to establish an evaluation method for the relationship between feeding methods and meat quality and fatty acid characteristics.A total of 194 mutton samples were col-lected from 7 banners and counties of 3 cities in central and western Inner Mongolia.The content of fatty acids in mutton was determined and analyzed by principal component analysis(PCA)and descriptive statis-tical.The results showed that.(1)from the PCA results of fatty acids under different feeding systems,there was no significant difference in all mutton samples,and there was a significant separation in goat mutton between grazing and house feeding.The contents of SFA,c16:0 and c18:0 in grazing mutton were significantly higher than those in house feeding mutton,while the contents of MUFA and c18:1n9c in grazing mutton were significantly lower than those in house feeding mutton(P<0.05).(2)The PCA re-sults of fatty acids of different regions showed a significant separation in Xilinhot area,Alashan region and Ordos region.The contents of SFA,c16:0,c17:0 and c18:0 in mutton of Ordos area were significantly higher than those of other areas(P<0.05),and the contents of PUFA,n-3PUFA and n-6pufa in Ximeng were 2 to 3 times higher than those in other areas.The content of MUFA and TFA in Alashan League was significantly higher than that in other areas(P<0.05),and the content of TFA was 3 to 5 times particu-larly higher.(3)The PCA results of fatty acids of different breeds showed that the samples of Erdos fine wool sheep and Sunit sheep were significantly separated than that of Alashan white cashmere goat,Mon-golian sheep and Albas white cashmere goat.The contents of SFA,PUFA and c18:3n3 in sheep mutton were significantly higher than those in goats(P<0.05),and the contents of n-3PUFA and n-6PUFA in sheep meat were 1.5 to 2 times higher than those in goats.The contents of MUFA and c18:1n9c in goat mutton were significantly higher than those in sheep.(4)The PCA results of fatty acids of different parts showed that the three parts of mutton samples were overlapped,and no significant separation was found.The SFA,C14:0,C1 6:0,C17:0,C18:0 and C16:1 content in intercostal fat was significantly higher than that in other parts(P<0.05),the contents of MUFA,TFA and C18:1n9c in biceps femoris were signifi-cantly higher than those in other parts(P<0.05),and the content of PUFA,C18:3n3 and C18:2n6c in longissimus dorsi was significantly higher than that in other parts(P<0.05).Therefore,different feeding methods,varieties,regions and parts have effects on fatty acid fingerprint characteristics of mutton in In-ner Mongolia.