A comparative study of cold drying conditions on the physicochemical, microbial and sensory properties of dried chicken slices

Abstract

SummaryThe aim of this study was to produce high‐quality dried chicken meat slices by a low‐temperature vacuum drying system. Chicken meat slices were cut in 2 and 4 mm thicknesses and then dried at the temperatures of 10 and 20 °C and the pressures of 1, 0.85 and 0.70 atm. The mean moisture content, water activity (aw) and pH values of the low‐temperature vacuum dried chicken slices were 41%, 0.90% and 6.23%, respectively. Depending on the temperature increase, the non‐protein nitrogen (NPN) (P < 0.01) value increased from 5.49 g per 100 g to 6.13 g per 100 g, and the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) (P < 0.01) value increased from 13.33 to 17.89 μmol MDA kg−1. The colour of samples changed from a lighter and yellow to a darker and brownish as the drying temperature, pressure and thickness increased. The cutting force was higher at 2 mm thickness (18.42 N) (P < 0.01) and 0.70 atm pressure (17.12 N) (P < 0.05) conditions. The samples dried at 10 °C, 0.70 atm and 2 mm had higher microbiological quality and the highest overall acceptability score (7.57).