https://doi.org/10.37527/2021.71.S1
1Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay
Background and objective. Based on the fatty acids composition of foods, indices have been used to estimate the potential cardiovascular risk for consumers. In this work, meat from chickens fed a diet enriched with chia, was evaluated regarding the sum of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), n-6, n-3 fatty acids and their ratio. Moreover, the atherogenicity (AI), thrombogenicity (TI) and the hyper/hypo cholesterolemic effect (h/H) were determined.
Methods. Chickens (14 by treatment) individually caged in floor (0.35 m2/animal) were fed for 52 days before sacrifice, with a diet enriched with 0(T0); 2.5(T1); 5(T2) and 10(T3) % of chia seeds. The fatty acids composition of meat from drumstick, thigh and breast cuts was determined by Clarus 500 chromatograph and CPsil-88 column. The fatty acids composition of meat was used to estimate indices, as described in International Journal of Food Science (https.//doi.org/10.1155/2017/7613069). The GLM procedure has been used for the statistical analysis of the results.
Results. The MUFA content decreases significantly in all cuts when chia is used. The content of n-6 fatty acids is stable through the treatment, while the n-3 fatty acids increase progressively when Chia is added to the feed. Consequently, the n-6/n-3 ratio is significantly improved within the recommended value, as level of added Chia increases. This effect is noticed in all cuts. For AI indices, cuts present favourable values, but the higher AI is for T3. This result is probably linked to the decrease of MUFA in meat. MUFA content is critical within the equations for the estimation of indices. In the case of IT and h/H indices, the values for T1 and T2, but not for T3, are favourable to prevent cardiovascular diseases.
Conclusions. Chickens fed with chia seed at 2.5 and 5 %, but not at 10 %, allow obtaining meat with favourable lipid indices to prevent cardiovascular diseases in consumers.
Keywords: chia, chickens, lipids indices.