RESUMO
Forty crossbred (Santa Ines × Dorper) male lambs were used to investigate the effect of dietary buriti oil (BOIL) intake on meat quality, fatty acid (FA) composition and sensory attributes. A completely randomized design with five BOIL intake levels (0, 12, 24, 36 and 48 g/kg DM) was used. Increasing dietary BOIL intake linearly reduced the DMI, slaughter weight, cooking loss, shear force, yellowness, 16:0, c9-18:1 FA concentrations, and the delta-9-desaturase activity index computed using c9-16:1 and 16:0 as product and substrate pair, cis-MUFA and Æ©MUFA/Æ©SFA ratio of lamb meat (P ≤ 0.05); however, increasing dietary BOIL intake quadratically increased the energy intake, lipid content and linearly increased the total FA intake, chroma, collagen, total BI, 18:0, 20:3n-6 concentration and sensory attributes of lamb meat (P ≤ 0.05), without affecting health indexes regarding fat consumption. BOIL addition at levels above 24 g/kg DM in lamb diet reduces growth, however, improves tenderness, flavor and "goat" aroma intensity and slightly changes meat FA levels, promoting better acceptance by panelists.