Estudio de la calidad de carne producida por novillos de la raza Wagyu alimentados con subproductos de alto contenido lipídico

Despite the differentiated value of its beef that positions Uruguay as a competitive country, the pursuit of excellence in meat quality continues. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the addition of high-lipid-content product during the finishing phase of Wagyu steers could improve meat quality in terms of organoleptic characteristics such as tenderness, juiciness, flavor, and overall liking. The study involved 16 animals fed diets with and without a lipid addition supplementation, divided into two treatments: ‘Wagyu with added lipids', ‘Wagyu without added lipid’, and , and a third treatment used as a breed effect control, called 'Non-Wagyu'. The method used to evaluate the meat was a Sensory Evaluation Panel conducted at “UTEC” in Paysandú, where 52 participants rated each of the variables on a 1 to 9 hedonic scale for all three treatments. An analysis of variance was then performed using the GLIMMIX procedure of the SAS software. The results indicated significant effects among all treatments and did not align with the initial expectations, as the highest scores for all evaluated characteristics were obtained by the ‘Wagyu without lipid addition’ treatment, followed by ‘Wagyu with lipid addition’, and finally the ‘Non-Wagyu’. Based on these results, it is concluded that the addition of lipids did not improve the evaluated organoleptic characteristics; however, the Wagyu breed continues to show superiority over the 'Non-Wagyu' breed. Nevertheless, laboratory analysis of the meat and an economic cost assessment should be carried out to contribute to the study.