CRAWFORD ET AL.: FLAVOR OF TURKEY 



Table 6. — Methyl ester fatty acid composition of lipids extracted 

 from the thighs of turkeys' fed from 14 wk to 16 wk of age diets 

 containing varv'ing levels of beef fat and tuna oil. 



^i distribution in extracted oil 



Fatty 

 acid 



Group A 



Group B 



Group C 



C14 



C14:1 



C15 



Iso C16 



C16 



C16:1 



CI 7 



ISO CI 8 



C18 



CIS: 



C18 

 C18 

 C20 

 C20 

 C22 

 C22 



'> lipid. 

 g/100 g 

 tissue 



0.4 



0.1 



0.1 



1.9 



17.7 



5.8 



0.3 



0.9 



10.6 



21.7 



30.7 



1.6 



5.2 



0.2 



0.5 



0.5 



2 10 



1.0 



0.1 



0.2 



2.1 



16.8 



1.8 



0.5 



0.8 



13.8 



20.3 



26.4 



1.3 



62 



0.9 



0.8 



4.5 



2 12 



1.0 



0.1 



0.2 



1.6 



18.7 



1.9 



0.6 



0.7 



12.1 



20.4 



26.2 



1.5 



5.0 



1.4 



0.7 



6.1 



2 55 



'All turkeys were fed a basal diet without oil supplement to 14 wk of age 

 and to 16wkof age with oil Group A = 40 beef fat. Group B = 3'> beef fat 

 -r Vt tuna oil. Group C = 2*; beef fat - 2'> tuna oil. 



Fatty acid distributions and percent extracted 

 lipids from the thighs of these turkeys are shown 

 in Table 6. (The same analyses were not possible 

 for the breast meat because it was used in another 

 experiment.) As before, the amount of C22:6oj3 

 increased as the amount of fish oil in the diet 

 increased. It is of interest that the lipid level was 

 only slightly higher in the 16-wk turkeys fed fish 

 oil for 2 wk than in the 6- or 8-wk turkeys fed from 

 day 4 to slaughter. Yet, the percentof C22:6u;3 was 

 less than half that of the 8-wk birds, while the 

 flavor reported in Table 7 was at least as fishy, if 

 not more so. 



In conclusion, if consideration is given to 1) the 

 effects of a -tocopherol on (reducing) the fishy 

 flavor, while not affecting the uptake of linole- 

 nates, and 2) the different levels of long-chain 

 linolenates present when fishiness is detected, one 

 has to reason that the long-chained u; 3 fatty acids 

 do not of themselves cause fishy flavor by their 

 simple presence. It is plausible that the fishy 

 flavors result at least in part from the oxidation (in 

 vivo? postmortem?) of linolenates and that 

 o-tocopherol limits the oxidation. It is further col- 

 orable that the amount of linolenate oxidation 

 needed to produce fishy flavor may be smaller than 

 the inherent error in fatty acid analyses and 

 therefore, no differences would be observed in the 

 amount of linolenates in the carcass of turkeys fed 

 fish oils with and without oi-tocopherol. 



Table 7. — Mean taste panel scores' and regression equations (% 

 tuna fish oil supplement vs. mean taste panel scores) for thigh 

 and breast meat and skin of turkeys fed diets containing varying 

 amounts of beef fat and tuna oil. 



' = no fishy flavor. 5 = very fishy. 



'All groups of turkeys were fed a basal diet without oil supplementation 

 to 14 wk of age and to 16 wk with oil. Group A = 4'~f beef fat. Group B = 3% 

 beef fat - 1<7 tuna oil (TO). Group C = 2rf beef fat ^ 20 TO. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 



We wish to acknowledge the very able assis- 

 tance rendered by Helen H. Palmer, Hans 

 Lineweaver, Ed Mecchi, J. S. Lin, Carol Hudson, 

 and our (Western Regional Research Laboratory) 

 very able Biometrical Services staff. Further 

 gratitude is expressed to Hoffman LaRoche Inc., 

 Pacific Vegetable Oil International, Inc., Mon- 

 santo Co., Star-Kist Foods, and Van Camp Sea 

 Food for their contributions of some of the materi- 

 als used in this experiment. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Dreosti, G. M. 



1970. Good quality fish meals. Fish. Ind. Res. Inst. Prog. 

 Rep. 197, Univ. Cape Town, Cape Town, S. Afr. 

 Edwards, H. M., Jr., and K. N. May. 



1965. Studies with menhaden oil in practical-type broiler 

 rations. Poult. Sci. 44:685-689. 



Klose, a. a., E. p. Mecchi, H. L. Hanson, and H. Lineweaver. 

 1951. The role of dietary fat in the quality of fresh and 

 frozen storage turkeys. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 28: 162- 164. 

 Lea, C. H., L. J. Parr, J. L. L'Estrange, and K. J. Carpenter. 



1966. Nutritional effects of autoxidized fats in animal diets. 

 Br. J. Nutr. 20:123-133. 



Lineweaver, H. 



1970. Effect of feed ingredients on the development of off 

 flavors in turkey meat. Feedstuffs 42(9):30. 

 Mecchi, E. P., M. F. Pool, G. A. Beham, M. Hamachi, and A. A. 

 Klose. 



1956. The role of tocopherol content in the comparative 

 stability of chicken and turkey fat. Poult. Sci. 

 35:1238-1246. 

 Mecchi, E. P., M. F. Pool, M. Nonaka, A. A. Klose, S. J. 



MaRSDEN, and R. J. LiLLIE. 



1956. Further studies on tocopherol content and stability of 

 carcass fat of chickens and turkeys. Poult. Sci. 

 35:1246-1251. 



1037 



