Physico-chemical, sensory, and microbiological quality of raw chicken meat: an exploratory study in the Hisar city of Haryana, India

Indora Bhawana; Ashok Malik; António Raposo; Shubha Singh; Sanjay Yadav; Renata Puppin Zandonadi; Linda Heejung Lho; Heesup Han; Neha Thakur

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1184005

Physico-chemical, sensory, and microbiological quality of raw chicken meat: an exploratory study in the Hisar city of Haryana, India

Front Nutr. 2023 Jul 18:10:1184005. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1184005. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Indora Bhawana¹, Ashok Malik¹, António Raposo², Shubha Singh¹, Sanjay Yadav¹, Renata Puppin Zandonadi³, Linda Heejung Lho⁴, Heesup Han⁵, Neha Thakur¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Livestock Products Technology, College of Veterinary Sciences, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India.
² CBIOS (Research Center for Biosciences and Health Technologies), Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Lisboa, Portugal.
³ University of Brasília, Faculty of Health Sciences, Nutrition Department, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Brasília, Brazil.
⁴ College of Business Division of Tourism and Hotel Management, Cheongju University, Cheongju-si, South Korea.
⁵ College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Sejong University, Seoul, South Korea.

Abstract

A survey was conducted in Hisar, located in Haryana, India, to assess the quality of raw chicken meat. To ensure comprehensive coverage, healthy broiler chickens were obtained from various meat retail outlets in Hisar city, encompassing the majority of such establishments. Additionally, a sample of control chickens was obtained from the Livestock Farm, College of Veterinary Sciences, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (LUVAS), Hisar, Haryana, India. The raw chicken meat was grouped into two categories, breast cut and thigh cut. The breast muscles, which include pectoralis major and pectoralis minor, and the thigh muscles, which include the abductor muscles, were chosen as the samples for proximate analysis, which included physico-chemical, sensory, and microbiological analyses of raw chicken meat. The analysis of the raw meat in the laboratory revealed inconsistent variations between the control and retail samples in terms of parameters, such as proximate composition, pH, the water-holding capacity (WHC), thiobarbituric acid (TBA), instrumental color analysis, and sensory evaluation. The moisture content of the control breast sample was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that of the samples from shops 2, 3, and 5. However, it was statistically similar to that of the samples from shops 1, 4, and 6. The total plate and psychrotrophic counts of the control thigh sample were significantly lower than those of the samples from shops 3, 4, 5, and 6. Among the thigh pH values, the samples from shops 1, 2, 5, and 6 had significantly higher pH values than the control sample. The variations in the various parameters were multifactorial and established the superiority of birds slaughtered under laboratory conditions and grown in university farms compared to the raw chicken meat available in retail outlets in Hisar city.

Keywords: meat hygiene; microbial quality; physico-chemcial evaluation; raw chicken meat; sensory evaluation.