AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD SCIENCE Agricultural and Food Science (2025) 34: 104–112 104 https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.154949 Influence of different production systems on the sensory attributes, fatty acid composition and vitamin E concentration in meat from intact male lambs Elin Stenberg1, Viktoria Olsson2, Anders H. Karlsson1, Karin Wendin2 and Katarina Arvidsson Segerkvist1 1Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 234, SE-53223 Skara, Sweden 2Department of Food and Meal Science, Kristianstad University, SE- 291 88 Kristianstad, Sweden e-mail: elin.stenberg@slu.se Sensory attributes, fatty acid composition and vitamin E concentration of meat from intact male lambs reared in four different production systems were analysed. The production systems were: I) indoor feeding with silage and concentrate; II) cultivated pasture; III) cultivated pasture with concentrate supplement; and IV) semi-natural pasture. Meat from lambs reared on semi-natural pasture tended to have stronger hay odour (p= 0.052) and leafy flavour (p= 0.078) than lamb meat from the production systems involving cultivated pasture and indoor feeding. Resist- ance to cutting was lower (p= 0.032) for meat from lambs reared on cultivated pasture without supplementary concentrate compared to cultivated pasture with supplemented concentrate. Production system resulted in a tendency for difference in the ratio between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. The ratio between n-6 and n-3 was affected by production system (p< 0.0001) where the indoor feeding with silage and concentrate had a higher ratio (2.64) than the other groups (cultivated pasture plus concentrate=1.96, cultivated pasture=1.45 and semi-natural pasture=1.41). No other differences were found regarding fatty acid composition. Vitamin E concentration was higher (p< 0.0001) in all three pasture groups compared to the indoor feeding with silage and concentrate. Key words: odour, flavour, tenderness, pasture, silage, concentrate Introduction Consumers usually determine meat quality by its eating quality with tenderness, juiciness and flavourbeing the most important attributes for beef (McIlveen and Buchanan 2001) and flavour, tenderness and juiciness the most important for lamb (Young et al. 1997, Pethick et al. 2006). The reason why flavour is the most important senso- ry attribute for lamb could be due to the characteristic flavour and odour associated with lamb and sheep meat (Young et al. 1994). It is important to identify whether the flavour of lamb can be affected by the production sys- tem. Many different factors from farm to fork, such as breed, feed components, slaughter method and cooking method, affect the eating quality of lamb meat (Sañudo et al. 1998). The eating quality of Swedish lamb meat is reported to vary (Carlsson and Arvidsson Segerkvist 2018), which might be due to the use of different production systems, breeds, gender, age at slaughter and slaughter weights, all of which can affect the sensory attributes of the meat. Differences between castrated and intact male lambs have been reported, with intact male lambs receiving higher scores for undesirable flavour and aroma attributes that may become more pronounced with increasing age (Gkarane et al. 2017). As only a small proportion of Swedish male lambs are castrated (castrated lambs are companion animals rather than production animals) it is critical to determine the sensory profile of meat from intact male lambs. Different feeding strategies involving pasture and grain can affect the quality of lamb meat of e.g. flavour (Watkins et al. 2013), so it is important to investigate the influence of rearing system on the sensory profile of the meat. The fatty acid composition of meat highly influences the nutritive aspects and sensory pro- file of meat. Wang et al. (2015) reported that lambs that spent more time grazing and consumed less concentrate exhibited higher levels of beneficial fatty acids, including conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), resulting in improved n-6/n-3 ratios. When considering the fatty acid composition of meat, storage stability is crucial for the sensory profile. Lauzurica et al. (2005) reported the importance of vitamin E in reducing lipid and protein oxidation. An indirect effect of vitamin E is to influence the aroma profile of meat by reducing oxidation of the fatty acids present (Bellés et al. 2019). The aim of this study wasto determine the effect of different feeding regimes on the sensory properties, fatty acid composition and vitamin E concentration of meat from intact male lambs. Received 17 December 2024 / Accepted 12 May 2025 The Scientific Agricultural Society of Finland ©This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 E. Stenberg et al. 105 Materials and methods Animals and experimental design A detailed description of the experimental design, including animals, chemical composition and feeding values of experimental feeds, slaughter procedure, carcass characteristics, meat sample treatment and technological meat quality assessments is provided in the first paper in the current series (Stenberg et al. 2020). A total of 32 cross- bred weaned intact ram lambs (Dorset × Fine Wool; 75:25; mean age = 95 days) were assigned at random into four groups of eight animals and assigned to one of four production systems: indoor feeding cultivated pasture with concentrate supplementation or only cultivated pasture without concentrate supplementation, and semi-natural pasture . All animals in the study had ad libitum access to water, salt (99.8% sodium chloride whereof 39.3% was sodium and < 0.05 % water) and minerals (Table 1). Indoor treatment lambs were offered a total mixed ration (TMR) ad libitum consisting of grass-clover silage and 0.8 kg pelleted concentrate per lamb and day. The TMR was mixed daily in a large tub before feeding the animals to ensure equal mixing. Both cultivated pasture treatment lambs grazed two different enclosed pasture leys of 1.0 ha each divided into three sub-paddocks. In addition to grass, one group on cultivated pasture were given 0.3 kg of pelleted concentrate per lamb and day in feed troughs out on the pasture, on one occasion per day. Semi- natural pasture treatment (lambs were kept on semi-natural pasture. The metabolizable energy content of silage and pasture offered to lambs in groups indoors, cultivated pasture plus concentrate, cultivated pasture and semi-natural pasture was 11±0.3, 12±0.4, 10±0.5 and 12±0.3 MJ kg-1 DM, respectively, and the digestible protein content was 126±15.0, 140±27.6, 127±15.8 and 180±69.6 g kg-1 DM, respectively. The metabolizable energy and protein concentration of the concentrate was 13 MJ kg-1 DM and 185 g kg-1 DM, respectively. Lambs were weighed once weekly to determine when each animal was drafted for slaughter at a live weight of approximately 50 kg. Lambs in the cultivated pasture groups were moved to new grazing paddocks in connection to weighing once a week. The slaughter process mimicked the commercial slaughter process of lamb in Sweden as described by Stenberg et al. (2020). Age at slaughter and live weight gain (LWG) per day are shown in Table 2. After slaugh- ter, all carcasses were put in +4 °C until cutting after six days aging time. The indoor and cultivated pasture groups were all reared at SLU Götala Beef and Lamb Research, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Skara, Sweden (58°42′N, 13°21′E) and the group on semi-natural pasture was kept at a private farm outside Skara, Sweden (58°20′N, 13°26′E). The experiment was approved by the Ethics Committee on Animal Experiments, Gothenburg, Sweden (Registration No. 53-2016). Table 1. Mineral composition of mineral block and granulated minerals Composition Mineral block1 Granulated minerals Calcium (g kg-1 DM) 130 150 Phosphorus (g kg-1 DM) 45 45 Ca/P (g kg-1 DM) 2.9 3.3 Magnesium (g kg-1 DM) 80 80 Sodium (g kg-1 DM) 100 90 Sulphur 8 g kg-1 DM) - 5 Vitamin A (IU) - 3 500 000 Vitamin D (IU) - 800 000 Vitamin E (mg kg-1 DM) - 55 0002 Zinc (mg kg-1 DM) 50 000 50 000 Manganese (mg kg-1 DM) 40 000 40 000 Iodine (mg kg-1 DM) 2000 2000 Cobalt (mg kg-1 DM) 400 800 Selenium (mg kg-1 DM) 450 603 1Mineral block=pasture groups. Granulated minerals=indoor group; 2of which 1500 mg vitamin E was in natural form; 3of which 15 mg was selenium yeast Agricultural and Food Science (2025) 34: 104–112 106 Meat sample handling and preparation After six days of ageing at +4 °C, samples of Musculus longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL) were excised and immediately frozen and stored at –20 °C until sensory analysis. A sample of approximately 40–60 grams were cut off from the cranial end of the LTL and immediately frozen and stored at –20 °C until analysis of fatty acid com- position and vitamin E concentration. For the sensory analysis, the samples were thawed at +4 °C overnight and cooked vacuum-packed in a circulating water bath at 70°C (PolyScience®, Sous Vide Professional™) to an internal temperature of 65.5 ± 1.2 °C, with an average cooking loss of 20.1 ± 2.0%. The cooked samples were chilled at +4 °C overnight and cut into 5-mm slices cut perpendicular to the muscle fibers, using a commercial meat slicer, on the day of sensory evaluation. Two slices per sample were placed in petri dishes labelled with a three- digit code and held at 70°C (ASCO, Hot Banquet Trolley) for 10 minutes before being served to the panellists in a randomised serving order. Sensory evaluation Sensory evaluation was performed using descriptive analysis (Stone and Sidel, 2004). Sample evaluation was carried out by an external panel of six assessors, who were selected and trained according to ISO 3972:2011(E) and SS-EN ISO 8586:2014(E) in a sensory laboratory at Kristianstad University equipped according to SS-EN ISO 8589:2010(E). In four training sessions lasting two hours each, the panel developed descriptions of the appearance and of key sensory attributes (flavour, odour, texture) of the lamb meat samples and reached consensus in evaluation of the selected attributes (Table 3). For initial training, lamb meat from different sources (New Zealand, Ireland and Sweden) was used in order to expose the panellists to different types of lamb meat. Reference materials were used as a help to associate the attribute to what to be assessed, these reference materials were used in training for attributes related to e.g. colour, odour and flavour. After completion of the training, the 32 samples (n=8 lambs from each of the four treatment groups) were evaluated on five occasions. All samples were evaluated in triplicate and the assessors indicated the intensity of each attribute on a scale ranging from 0 to 100, anchored with 5=low intensity and 95=high intensity, using the software EyeQuestion® (Logic8 BV, The Netherlands). Between sample tests, the panellists cleansed their palate using water, wheat crackers and cucumber. Ethical considerations In Sweden, any research involving the processing of sensitive personal data falls under the jurisdiction of the Swedish Ethics Review Act. The present study, which explores perceptions of food, does not involve sensitive personal data as defined by the Data Protection Ordinance. All participants received written and oral information about the test and the contents of the assessed products and gave their informed consent to participate. No information from the questionnaire can be traced to or used to identify any individual participant, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Table 2. Age at slaughter and live weight gain (LWG) of lambs in the different treatment groups Parameter Indoors1 Cultivated pasture plus concentrate2 Cultivated pasture3 Semi-natural pasture4 SEM Significance Age at slaughter, days 146a 163b 172c 193d 3.51 <0.0001 Live weight at slaughter, kg 51.8 50.3 49.2 50.9 0.71 0.096 Days in experiment 62a 77b 85c 108d 2.52 <0.0001 Carcass weight, kg 21.6a 21.3a 20.9a 18.8b 0.58 0.004 LWG, g day-1 406a 315b 256c 224d 12.48 <0.0001 1Indoor lambs were reared indoors on silage and concentrate (0.8 kg/lamb/day); 2Cultivated pasture plus concentrate lambs on cultivated pasture with concentrate (0.3 kg/lamb/day); 3cultivated pasture lambs on only cultivated pasture; 4Semi-natural pasture lambs on only semi-natural pasture; SEM = standard error of the mean; a-dMean values within rows with different superscripts differ significantly (p< 0.05) E. Stenberg et al. 107 * References served to the panellists as a clear association to the attributes to be assessed Texture - hand Resistance to cutting Low || High Assessed on a plate by cutting through the sample at a right angles to the fibres using a knife and fork Texture - hand Softness by compression Soft || Hard Assessed on a plate by compressing the meat using the back of a fork Texture - mouth Tenderness Low || Pronounced Assessed by chewing three times using molar teeth and rating degree of tenderness Texture - mouth Crumbliness Low|| High Crumbly/grainy texture assessed after chewing using molar teeth Flavour Lamb meat flavour Low || High Intensity of total lamb meat flavour Flavour Metal flavour Low || High Intensity of flavour perception related to iron and blood Flavour Leafy flavour Low|| High Intensity of flavour perception related to tea, dried grass Black tea, green tea After flavour Oiliness Little || Much Fatty perception, oily film on the palate Table 3. Definitions of the sensory attributes tested in sensory evaluation Category/type Attribute Scale (0─100) Assessment technique and definition Reference materials* Appearance Pinkness Low || High Assessed at the core of the slice, as degree of pinkness Myoglobin solution heated to 50–80 °C Appearance Fibre structure Fine || Coarse Determination of structure after ocular examination Meat cuts with varying fibre structure Odour Lamb meat odour Weak || Strong Intensity when smelling sample Odour Acidic odour Weak || Strong Intensity when smelling sample Odour Hay odour Weak || Strong Intensity when smelling sample Hay, silage and fresh grass, green tea Agricultural and Food Science (2025) 34: 104–112 108 Analysis of fatty acid composition and vitamin E concentration Lipid extraction was performed by homogenizing the sample with a chloroform and methanol mixture following the method of Bligh and Dyer (1959). Fatty acid composition was analysed using an improved technique, in which fatty acids were esterified with methanol in the presence of sodium hydroxide and catalysed by boron trifluoride. Analysis of the methyl esters was conducted via gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID) using helium as the carrier gas (HP 6890) on a CP-sil 88 column (50 m, ID 0.25 mm, 0.20 lm Chrompack), as described by Jensen (2008). Fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) were identified by comparing retention times of FAME standards, and the fatty acids were classified into three major categories: saturated fatty acids (SFAs), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Statistical analysis The sensory data obtained were analysed using Proc Mixed in Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) (SAS 9.4), with production system as fixed factor and assessor as random factor, in the model: Yijk = µ + Pi + aj + eijk Fatty acid and vitamin E data were analysed using a model which included production system (with four sub-class- es) included as a fixed effect: Yij= µ + Pi + eij where Yijk and Yij is the dependent variable, µ is the grand mean, Pi is fixed effect of production system, aj is ran- dom effect of assessor, and eij and eijk are the residual error (~ N(0, σ2)). A general Satterthwaite approximation for the denominator degrees of freedom was performed, using the SATTERTH option in SAS. Differences were considered significant at p< 0.05 and indicative of a tendency at 0.05 ≤p <0.10. Results Sensory evaluation The effects of treatments on sensory scores are presented in Table 4. Meat from lambs offered the cultivated pasture treatment had lower resistance to cutting (p= 0.032) than meat from cultivated pasture with concentrate treatment. There was a tendency for lambs from the semi-natural pasture to produce meat with a higher leafy flavour (p= 0.078) and hay odour (p= 0.052). Otherwise treatment had no effect (p> 0.05) on sensory scores. Table 4. Sensory scores obtained in sensory evaluation of meat from the four different production system tested (n=8 for each group) Parameters Indoors1 Cultivated pasture plus concentrate2 Cultivated pasture3 Semi-natural pasture4 SEM5 Significance Pinkness 466 47 45 46 2.34 NS Fibre structure 37 35 35 33 1.57 NS Lamb meat odour 48 48 49 49 1.07 NS Acidic odour 32 30 31 33 0.97 NS Hay odour 30 29 29 33 1.07 0.052 Resistance to cutting 37ab 43b 34a 39ab 1.91 0.032 Softness by compressing 55 50 55 54 1.90 NS Tenderness 60 52 65 61 3.47 NS Crumbliness 45 41 49 50 3.31 NS Lamb meat flavour 54 53 54 56 1.16 NS Metal flavour 39 42 41 43 1.57 NS Leafy flavour 31 32 33 35 1.17 0.078 Oiliness 34 35 34 36 1.16 NS 1Indoor lambs were reared indoors on silage and concentrate (0.8 kg/lamb/day); 2Cultivated pasture plus concentrate lambs on cultivated pasture with concentrate (0.3 kg/lamb/day); 3cultivated pasture lambs on only cultivated pasture; 4Semi-natural pasture lambs on only semi-natural pasture; 5SEM = standard error of the mean; 6Scores are on a scale of 1–100 anchored with 5=low intensity and 95=high intensity; a-bMean values within rows with different superscripts differ significantly (p< 0.05) or show a tendency for significance at 0.05 0.10) E. Stenberg et al. 109 Fatty acid composition and vitamin E concentration The effect of treatments on intramuscular fat (IMF) content, fatty acid composition and vitamin E concentration are presented in Table 5. Meat from semi-natural pasture treatment had lower IMF content (p= 0.008), C16:0 (p= 0.0014) and the sum of n-6 fatty acids (p< 0.0001) than meat from the other three treatments. Both treat- ments including concentrate had higher levels of C18:1 n-9 (p< 0.0001) and sum of n-3 fatty acids (p< 0.0001) compared to treatments without concentrate supplementation, semi-natural pasture had lower amount than cultivated pasture treatment. Semi-natural pasture and cultivated pasture treatments all had higher composition of t-11 18:1 (trans vaccenic acid) (p= 0.022) and content of vitamin E (p< 0.0001) in meat compared to the indoor group. Semi-natural pasture treatment had higher content of C18:2 n-6 (p< 0.0001), C18:3 n-3 (p< 0.0001) and sum of other identified fatty acids (see table 4) compared to the other three groups. Indoor treatment had higher ratio between n-6 and n-3 acids (p< 0.0001) than the other three treatments, cultivated pasture with concentrate treatment had higher ratio than both cultivated pasture and semi-natural pasture treatments. Semi-natural pas- ture had lower concentration of the sum of saturated fatty acids (p= 0.048) compared to cultivated pasture with concentrate and cultivated pasture treatments. Semi-natural pasture treatment tended to have higher sum of unsaturated fatty acids and lowerratio between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids than the other three treat- ments. Otherwise, treatment had no effect (p> 0.05) on C18:0 and cis-9, t-11 18:2 (CLA). Discussion As lamb meat may be characterised by typical off-flavours (Young et al. 1994), it is a positive finding that the different production systems tested in the present study did not give rise to many differences in lamb meat odour or lamb meat flavour. Previous research has shown that consumers can be broadly divided into two different categories, based on whether they like a milk- or concentrate-related flavour (milk- or grain-fed lamb) or a grass-related 1Indoor lambs were reared indoors on silage and concentrate (0.8 kg/lamb/day); 2Cultivated pasture plus concentrate lambs on cultivated pasture with concentrate (0.3 kg/lamb/day); 3cultivated pasture lambs on only cultivated pasture; 4Semi-natural pasture lambs on only semi-natural pasture; 5SEM = standard error of the mean; 6Other fatty acids include sum of: C8:0+C10:0+C12:0+C13:0+C14:0+C14:1+C15:0+C16:1n-9+C16:1n-7+C17:1+C18:1n- 7+trans10,cis12+C20:0+C20:1n-9+C20:2n-6+C20:3n-3+C20:3n-6+C30:4n-6+C20:5n-3+C22:0+C22:5n-6+C22:5n- 3+C22:6n-3; 7Quotient of the sum of n-6 and n-3 fatty acids; 8Quotient of the sum of saturated fatty acids and unsaturated fatty acids; a-bMean values within rows with different superscripts differ significantly (p<0.05) or show a tendency for significance at 0.05 < p≤ 0.10; NS: non-significant (p> 0.10) Table 5. Intramuscular fat (IMF%), fatty acid composition (g FA/100g FA) and vitamin E (µg/g) concentration of meat from the four different production system tested (n=8 for each of group) Parameters Indoors1 Cultivated pasture plus concentrate2 Cultivated pasture3 Semi-natural pasture4 SEM5 Significance IMF (%) 2.92a 3.53a 2.98a 1.87b 0.32 0.008 C16:0 24.4a 24.6a 23.8a 22.1b 0.45 0.001 C18:0 18.0 18.7 19.0 18.5 0.49 NS C18:1 n-9 40.7a 40.0a 38.2b 35.0c 0.59 <0.0001 t-1118:1, 2.50a 3.02b 3.14b 3.56b 0.23 0.022 C18:2 n-6 4.22a 3.28b 3.68a 5.40c 0.25 <0.0001 C18:3 n-3 0.92a 1.18b 1.86c 2.60d 0.09 <0.0001 Cis-9, t-11 (CLA) 0.52 0.57 0.60 0.68 0.05 NS Other FA6 8.76ab 8.70a 9.70b 12.2c 0.34 <0.0001 Sum n-6 FA 6.3a 5.30a 5.95a 8.83b 0.42 <0.0001 Sum n-3 FA 2.39a 2.73a 4.12b 6.31c 0.28 <0.0001 n-6/n-3 ratio7 2.64a 1.96b 1.45c 1.41c 0.04 <0.0001 Sum SFA 45.2ab 46.2a 45.8a 43.3b 0.74 0.048 Sum UFA 54.6 53.6 54.0 56.4 0.73 0.056 SFA/UFA ratio8 0.83 0.87 0.85 0.77 0.03 0.061 Vitamin E 1.51a 2.78b 2.87b 2.91b 0.18 <0.0001 Agricultural and Food Science (2025) 34: 104–112 110 flavour (pasture-fed lamb), although a minority of consumers can accept both types of flavour attributes (Sañudo et al. 2007). This finding is interesting since it indicates that lamb meat can be produced in different systems, depending on specific conditions on each individual farm, to suit different consumer preferences. The pastoral flavour associated with meat from lambs grazed on pasture may be unfamiliar to some consumers who are accustomed to eating meat from lambs reared on a diet based on grain, which is characterised by a more neutral flavour profile than meat from pasture-fed lambs (Watkins et al. 2013). In the present study, this was evident as a tendency for a difference in the attributes hay odour and leafy flavour between the groups. For both these attributes, meat from semi-natural pasture lambs was scored as having higher intensities than meat from lambs in the other three groups. Even though the difference was quite small, it was still detectable to the trained panellists. The higher intensities for these attributes may be related to the semi-natural pasture itself, indicating that the flavour of the meat can be affected by the feed through direct transfer of compounds from the digested feed components into the meat (Watkins et al. 2013). The compounds responsible for the specific flavours and odours in lamb meat are often methyl-branched-chain-fatty acids (BCFA), e.g. 4-methyloctanoic acid and 4-meth- ylnonanoic acid (Wong et al. 1975), which are present in large quantities in lamb meat (Mottram 1998). These fatty acids are not included in the fatty acid results in the present study but their effect on sensory properties of lamb meat is however still very important to discuss when considering sensory aspects of lamb meat. In a recent study, 4-methyloctanoic acid was found to be positively correlated with intensity of lamb flavour and intensity of lamb aftertaste, while 4-methylnonanoic was found to be positively correlated with fatty aftertaste (Gkarane et al. 2020). An earlier study found that intact male lambs slaughtered at about 210 days of age, compared with a slaughter age of 80 days, had higher levels of BCFA and elevated levels of 4-methyloctanoic and 4-methylnona- noic acids (Sutherland and Ames 1996). The slaughter age of lambs in the present study ranged from 146 to 193 days on average, which corresponds to between 62 to 108 days in experiment (Stenberg et al. 2020), a range for which no differences in the species-specific lamb flavour/odour attributes have been reported. Based on this, it can be concluded that differences between the groups may not have been primarily caused by fatty acids cor- related to more species-specific attributes. It would be interesting to investigate the effect of age differences at slaughter under controlled conditions, in order to identify when/if age affects differences in sensory attributes of lamb reared in different production systems, so that lamb producers can consider this factor and potentially con- trol the presence or intensity of species-specific attributes in meat. The differences found for the attributes hay odour and leafy flavour may instead be linked to more pastoral grassy flavours, rather than species-specific flavours. Alfa-linolenic acid (C18:3 n-3) has been identified as a lipid that can intensify the pastoral flavours of meat, through its oxidation products, and it is one of the dominant fatty acids in pasture foliage (Young and Baumeister 1999). Meat from lambs reared on pasture has been shown to have higher concentrations of α-linolenic acid than meat from lambs offered higher rations of concentrate, which contains low α-linolenic concentrations (Dıáz et al. 2002, Font i Furnols et al. 2009). Which is also supported by the present study where the pasture groups had higher concentrations of α-linolenic acid compared to the silage group. Another interesting aspect of the results is that the inclusion of concentrate in the diet, as for cultivated pasture with a daily concentrate ration in the diet did decrease the α-linolenic acid concentration in meat compared to lambs that were only grazing cultivated pasture. The difference in α-linolenic acid may be one explanation for the observed tendency for differences in the sensory attributes hay odour and leafy flavour in meat from lambs reared on semi-natural pasture compared with lambs from the other three rearing systems. The exact species composi- tion of the semi-natural pasture grazed by semi-natural pasture treatment was not determined, but it contained herbs and other plant species not present in the cultivated pasture/silage offered to lambs in the other groups, which may have caused the increase in sensory intensity for the pastoral-specific odour and flavour observed for the semi-natural pasture treatment. From a consumer point of view, the nutritive value of meat could be an important factor to discuss. In the present study, the results of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA: cis-9, t-11 18:2), and the ratio between n-6/n-3 and saturated/ unsaturated fatty acids can be used to talk about healthy or less healthy fatty acid composition in meat between the treatments tested. A quite recent meta-analysis publication states that a diet based on pasture exclusively re- sults in higher CLA concentration compared to diets with inclusion of other feedstuffs (Hampel et al. 2019). This was however not supported by the results from the current study, where there were no differences between treat- ments. One explanation for this may be that the inclusion of concentrate in the diets was too small to induce such a difference in CLA between treatments. The content of vitamin E in meat can influence the storage stability in terms of its ability to delay lipid oxidation of the meat and thereby increase the storage ability (Hampel et al. 2019, Álvarez-Rodríguez et al. 2022). Results from Guidera et al. (1997) did present an increased stability in colour in both fresh and frozen meat as an effect E. Stenberg et al. 111 of supplementation of vitamin E. The increased concentration of vitamin E in meat from the pasture groups of the present study are explained by diet, which can be supported by (Luciano et al. 2011), who reported that vitamin E concentration of beef meat decreased when the inclusion of concentrate increased within different diets. Based on information from the previously published papers cited above it is valid to propose that meat from the pasture groups within the current study, with higher concentration of vitamin E, could experience less lipid oxidation and be more colour stable compared to the indoor/silage group which had a lower concentration of vitamin E in the meat. The relationship between Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF) and sensory evaluation of meat texture can be used for comparing the results from texture measurements by instruments with findings from sensory texture analysis. In the present study, comparison of WBSF values reported in Stenberg et al. (2020) against the results obtained for the sensory attribute resistance to cutting revealed similar ranking of the four different groups in both approaches. Conclusions The four different feeding regimes tested in this study did not result in species-specific odour and flavour differences in the meat from intact male lambs. Further, the meat samples did not show any differences in species-specific odour and flavour attributes related to differences in slaughter age between the groups. The sensory differences detected were related to pastoral odour and flavour. The meat from lambs grazed on only cultivated pasture exhibited lower resistance to cutting than meat from lambs on cultivated pasture plus concentrate. The differences in fatty acid composition were mainly due to differences within the diets where pasture and concen- trate inclusion of the diet have had a significant role. Vitamin E concentration was higher in the pasture groups compared to the indoor/silage group, as an effect of diet. Acknowledgements We would like to thank Jonas Dahl, David Johansson, Karin, Wallin, Frida Dahlström for excellent technical sup- port in rearing the animals and sample collection, Sarah Forsberg and Therése Svensson for excellent contribu- tions to the sensory evaluation, Jan-Eric Englund for statistical advice and the sensory panel for good coopera- tion. This work was supported by Stiftelsen Svensk Fårforskning, Interreg ÖKS [grant number 20200994], Västra Götalandsregionen [grant number RUN-610-0789-13], Agroväst and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sci- ences through base support. References Álvarez-Rodríguez, J., Urrutia, O., Lobón, S., Ripoll, G., Bertolín, J.R. & Joy, M. 2022. Insights into the role of major bioactive di- etary nutrients in lamb meat quality: a review. Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology 13: 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40104-021-00665-0 Bellés, M., del Mar Campo, M., Roncalés, P. & Beltrán, J.A. 2019. 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Springer Nature. p. 71─97. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2177-8_5 Influence of different production systems on the sensoryattributes, fatty acid composition and vitamin E concentration inmeat from intact male lambs Introduction Materials and methods Animals and experimental design Meat sample handling and preparation Sensory evaluation Ethical considerations Analysis of fatty acid composition and vitamin E concentration Results Sensory evaluation Fatty acid composition and vitamin E concentration Discussion Conclusions Acknowledgements References