Rabbit Meat Processing and Safety

Rabbit meat is a highly nutritious and healthy meat. It is a lean meat with a low-fat (1.8–8.8%) content and less saturated fatty acids than other meats. It is also associated with low cholesterol (47 mg/100 g), high desirable unsaturated fatty acids (approximately 60% of total fat), better digestibility, and low allergenicity. It is rich in high biological value proteins, lean, and low in saturated fatty acids and cholesterol, which makes it an ideal meat for the current scenario where the meat sector is thriving to overcome its high carbon and water footprints. The present chapter exemplifies the quality characteristics of rabbit meat and elaborates its production and consumption and current scenario along with its processing, viz., preslaughter operations (such as loading and unloading of animals, transport of animals, lairage, and stunning), slaughtering, dressing, and cut-up parts. It also discusses the application of advanced technologies such as irradiation, sonication, high-pressure processing (HPP), and superchilling in rabbit meat processing. It also attempts to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of the rabbit meat/processing industry, as rabbit meat has the potential to become a sustainable meat source for future generations.