Food from Equids: Production, Quality, Promotion, and Commercialization

Dear Colleagues,

Pre-slaughter conditions, post-slaughter factors, and complex manipulative procedures during the processing can alter meat quality. Having a deep understanding and careful manipulating these factors must be taken into account to ensure high-quality meat with better technological properties and increased safety for consumers. Preslaughter factors include genetics, breed, gender, age of the animal, nutrition/dietary management, animal health, welfare, stress management, and climate. Post-slaughter factors include slaughter protocol, post-slaughter interventions (e.g., electrical stimulation, hanging method, and aging), storage, processing conditions (e.g., mincing and cooking procedures), and display (e.g., packaging). Equine meat is recognizable by numerous physicochemical properties, nutritive profile, and sensory attributes. Horsemeat is recognized by its dark color that changes to brown/black with a bluish tinge on exposure to air. Horses have a higher percentage of easily trimmed-off subcutaneous and body cavity fat and a lower percentage of intermuscular and intramuscular fat. The high suitability of horses for meat production is reflected throughout its excellent dressing percentages (up to 70%). Horsemeat shows a relatively quick pH decline after slaughter and is characterized by a relatively good water-holding capacity. Regarding the nutritional aspect, equine meat is a good source of important nutrients, as characterized by high protein and trace minerals contents, and a favorable fatty acid profile showing high concentrations of polyunsaturated fatty acids, and low cholesterol content. In terms of sensory properties, horsemeat is known for having a sweetish smell and aftertaste, mainly due to the high glycogen content and the presence of amino acids such as glycine and alanine. However, several scandals in the horsemeat sector were defined as a major threat to food safety, e.g., when the meat from horses entered the supply chain as beef and ended up being sold in many products. The impact on the food industry with scandals such as this was enormous and with great effort and small steps equine food is starting to be more appreciated and validated by consumers. Nowadays, when consumers are seeking new alternatives, food from equids, its production, and processing have numerous advantages. Therefore, transparent food chains, food safety, and commercialization of this type of meat present a challenge for all stakeholders. This Special Issue will offer findings that address the quite limited information affecting food from equids.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Animals. 

Dr. Klemen Potocnik
Dr. Ana Kaić
Dr. Elisabetta Salimei
Guest Editors

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• equine
• production
• meat
• meat products
• consumers
• food quality
• value-add products
• new methodology
• sensory evaluation
• carcass traits
• physicochemical properties
• pre-slaughter conditions
• post-slaughter factors
• food safety