The sensory characteristics of meat, such as flavor and aroma, may be influenced by several factors, and the use as food is considered the most important. With the aim of evaluating the effects of different diets on the sensorial properties of the meat of lambs, three diets having sugar cane ensilage and pulp of citrus as a base, differing only in the proportion of concentrated: forage (100:0; 75:25; 50:50), were offered to 21 lambs of Santa Inês breed, that were slaughtered with 35 kg, with an average age of 199 days. After slaughter, the carcasses were kept refrigerated at -2ºC/24h then the longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle was removed for the sensorial analysis. The cooked samples were served to a panel of 12 judges trained for sensorial evaluation of the attributes of appearance, taste, flavor, juiciness and succulence. The evaluation made by the judges demonstrated that there was not significant effects (P>0.05) of the diet on the attributes of taste, tenderness and juiciness. However, the appearance and the flavor were influenced, with significant difference between treatments 100:0 and 50:50. The strongest "sheep" flavor and the most "distasteful" appearance were evident in the meat of animals fed with diet 100:0. The samples proceeding from the animals fed with 50:50 diet presented better sensorial quality in comparision to the other diets.
Sensory analysis; quality; lamb; feeding
