Sheep and goat fermented meat products - health aspects

The most common sausages use only pork meat and are ripened for long periods. However, some countries with great tradition of sheep and goat meat consumption have the habit of eating some processed products of these meats. In Mediterranean countries as well as in other parts of the world, the meat from young lamb or kid is very usual and appreciated. These young milk fed animals producing lightweight carcasses are highly appreciated by consumers and are traditionally commercialized as quality brands with protected origin designation (PDO) or protected geographical indication (PGI). The animals that come out of these brands, particularly the heavier and culled ones, have very low consumer acceptability and consequently a low commercial value. Meat from these animals is more suitable to be processed as drought, cured or smoked products (Webb et al. 2005). Value may be added to final products by decreasing costs or improving relative value of the final product (McMillin and Brock 2005). With this goal there are several recently studies in goat and sheep meat processed products: Polpara et al. (2008) studied the quality characteristics of raw and canned goat meat in water, brine, oil and Thai curry during storage; Das et al. (2009) studied the effect of different fats on the quality of goat meat patties; Teixeira et al. (2011) studied the effect of salting, air-drying and ageing processes in a new goat meat product “manta”; Teixeira and Rodrigues (2014) refer the high contents of protein of new sheep and goat meat products (sausages and mantas) concluding that both products are balanced products in protein and fat contents particularly unsaturated fat; and Oliveira et al. (2014) evaluated the quality of ewe and goat meat cured product.