Physical and sensory meat quality of South African Black ostriches (Struthio camelus var. domesticus), Zimbabwean Blue ostriches (Struthio camelus australis) and their hybrid

Meat derived from three genotypes of ostrich, resulting from breeding South African Black (Black) ostriches and Zimbabwean Blue (Blue) ostriches as well as their hybrid, was analysed for physical and sensory quality. Ostriches of a commercially standard slaughter age of 14 months, raised under the same environment were used. The pH24 was the highest in the pure Blue genotype and therefore meat from this genotype was the darkest and the percentage drip loss and cooking loss the lowest. When comparing the pure Blue genotype to the pure Black genotype, 70% of the muscles had a higher pH24, 50% of the muscles were redder and significantly less saturated in colour, 67% of the muscles had a lower percentage drip loss and 50% of the muscles had a lower percentage cooking loss. No significant genotypic differences were found regarding the instrumental toughness, nor the sensory attributes of the meat.