Meso pataka u ishrani ljudi.

Meat represents food of high biological and nutritional value. Production of poultry meat in the world is continually increasing. Production of duck meat is an important segment of agricultural production in many Asian countries, compared to European countries. In Asia, about 82.6% of the total production of duck meat is produced. According to FA O (Food and Agriculture Organization) data, eight countries from Asia are in the first fifteen world producers of duck meat. In addition to meat, eggs and duck meat products are produced in these countries. Nutritional quality aspect of duck meat is associated with the fat content and composition, oxidative stability, the content of vitamins and minerals, while the sensory quality with the color, marbling, tenderness, juiciness, flavor and taste. These properties depend on several factors that mutually influence each other, among which the most important is the genotype of ducks, nutrition, housing of ducks, climatic conditions, the pre-slaughter treatment of ducks, and way of preserving duck meat. Duck meat is well accepted by consumers because of its sensory properties, high levels of phospholipid content, flavor precursors. Also it has a high content of unsaturated fatty acids that make 60% of total lipids. Because of the nutritional and sensory proper ties, duck meat is now often recommended in the diet of patients suffering from hypertension, neuralgia, atherosclerosis, tuberculosis and various forms of gastroenteritis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]