Caracterización de carne de conejo y producción de salchicha

Rabbit meat was characterized from the race 5/8 New Zealand White, determining its moisture, dry extract, pH, protein, fat, and functional properties such as water holding capacity (WHC), emulsion capacity (EC), color and profile texture (PT). Rabbit sausage was prepared according to the protocol for industrial beef sausages and the formulations used in meat shops of the plant food engineering at the Universidad de Cordoba, evaluating their functional properties. For fresh rabbit meat, the physicochemical characteristics were within the parameters except the fat characteristics, while the functional properties showed a good WHC and low EC relative to other types of meat, also the PT results were consistent with those obtained by studies done by other authors; Their color differs from that obtained from Spanish breeds and the stability of the emulsion formed when preparing meat sausage, showed acceptable results but lower than emulsions from sausages on the market. The texture of the sausage improved with respect to the texture of fresh rabbit meat, enhancing their elasticity, cohesiveness, and chewiness. The color parameters a and b, according to the methodology CIELAB for rabbit sausage, decreased compared with rabbit meat, while the luminosity did not show significant changes. To evaluate the differences in the parameters studied, we applied an analysis of variance in a completely randomized design using the STATISTICA program, noting that there were no significant differences from values produced by other similar studies for meat (p<0.001).