Quality Characteristics of Chevon Sausage Obtained from Goats Fed a 50% Inclusion Level of Melon (Colocynthis citrillus) Husk and Palm (Elaeis guineensis) Oil Slurry

A study was undertaken to determine effect of nutritional value of Melon husk (MH) and Palm oil slurry (POS) on quality of chevon obtained from West African Dwarf (WAD) goats fed finishing diets as follows: diet 1(0% MH, 0% POS); diet 2 (50% MH, 0% POS); diet 3 (0% MH, 50% POS) and diet 4 (50% MH, 50% POS), along with Panicum maximum as basal diet for all dietary treatment groups. After 60 days of feeding, eight goats (two goats per treatment) were slaughtered and muscles from the forelegs were used to produce chevon sausages, respectively. Proximate composition, sensory evaluation, cooking and refrigerated weight losses of sausages were determined. All data generated were analyzed as a oneway analysis of variance in a completely randomized design using SPSS statistical package. The study showed that values obtained for dry matter contents of the diets ranged from 89.53% to 89.81%. Cooking weight loss of the chevon sausages showed no significant (P>0.05) difference but refrigerated weight loss was lowest for sausages from goats fed diet 3 at 0.37%, with a high crude fat content of 13.30%. In conclusion, palm oil slurry reduced refrigerated weight loss in chevon sausage while organoleptic properties of chevon sausage, such as flavor, juiciness, saltiness e.t.c. were not influenced by dietary treatments.