Quality and Consumer Acceptability of In-bag Dry- and Wet Aged Lamb

INTRODUCTION Dry-aged meat is a niche product favoured by meat purveyors for mostly local upscale restaurants and gourmet markets. The distinct flavour of dry-aged meat commands a higher price in the marketplace, yet very little dry-aged meat is exported from its country of origin. Lamb is consumed widely around the world, and New Zealand is the major producer and exporter of wet-aged lamb globally. Dry-ageing of beef has been well studied over the last decade [1, 2] with comparatively limited research carried out on lamb. There is an opportunity to develop commercial dry-aged lamb for high value export markets. The aim of the present study was to compare the quality and consumer acceptability of in bag, dry- and wet-aged lamb.