Abstract
Simple SummaryChicken meat is largely consumed around the world, with an increasing demand in recent years. Unfortunately, chicken meat is very susceptible to oxidative deterioration; therefore, poultry industries often use synthetic dietary additives to improve meat shelf-life. However, due to the public’s growing concern about the potential toxic effect of the synthetic additives, there is an increasing interest in natural antioxidant compounds. Among these, organic acids and essential oils could represent a favourable option to improve the characteristics of chicken meat. The aim of this study was to evaluate the dietary supplementation of organic acids (sorbic and citric) and essential oils (thymol and vanillin) on the quality and shelf-life of broiler meat. The additive was supplemented for the entire growing cycle at the level of 0.5% (as a feed additive). This dietary strategy led a reduction in intramuscular fat content and an overall improvement in fatty acid profile. Moreover, the dietary supplementation of organic acids and essential oils reduced the lipid oxidation in cooked meat, whereas minor changes were observed for colour and lipid stability and for microbial loads in raw meat.The present study aims to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation based on a blend of microencapsulated organic acids (sorbic and citric) and essential oils (thymol and vanillin) on chicken meat quality. A total of 420 male Ross 308 chicks were randomly assigned to two dietary treatments: the control group was fed with conventional diet (CON), while the other group received the control diet supplemented with 0.5% of a microencapsulated blend of organic acids and essential oils (AVI). In breast meat samples, intramuscular fat content and saturated/polyunsaturated fatty acids ratio were reduced by AVI supplementation (p < 0.05). Moreover, atherogenic (p < 0.01) and thrombogenic (p < 0.05) indices were lower in AVI than CON treatment. AVI raw meat showed a lower density of psychrotrophic bacteria (p < 0.05) at an initial time, and higher loads of enterococci after 4 days of refrigerated storage (p < 0.05). No contamination of Listeria spp., Campylobacter spp., and Clostridium spp. was found. TBARS values of the cooked meat were lower in the AVI treatment compared to CON (p < 0.01). Among colour parameters, a*, b* and C* values increased between 4 and 7 days of storage in AVI cooked meat (p < 0.05). Overall, organic acids and essential oils could improve the quality and shelf-life of poultry meat.
Highlights
The popularity of chicken meat has been increasing around the world in recent years, and, in2018, the consumption of poultry meat reached a value of 30.6 kg per inhabitant in the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [1]
Chicken meat has been frequently found contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, such as Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC), Yersinia enterocolitica, Listeria monocytogenes, for which microbiological criteria are defined both by Regulation (EC) 853/2004 and Commission Regulation (EU) 1495/2017
Looking at results obtained at initial times, the highest mean microbial densities were detected for mesophilic bacteria (4.2 log10 cfu/g), Enterobacteriaceae (4.0 log10 cfu/g) and yeasts/moulds (3.8 log10 cfu/g), whereas the lowest values were detected for lactococci (1.3 log10 cfu/g) and enterococci (1.4 log10 cfu/g)
Summary
The popularity of chicken meat has been increasing around the world in recent years, and, in2018, the consumption of poultry meat reached a value of 30.6 kg per inhabitant in the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [1]. There are many factors affecting the quality of meat and meat spoilage is often associated to physical, chemical and microbiological deterioration. Even if numerous attempts have been made, chicken meat remains a highly perishable commodity which deteriorates after 4–10 days’ post slaughter, in refrigerated conditions, with the main economic losses being due to growth of spoilage microorganisms [3,4]. Meat is inclined to oxidative deterioration [5] and, in particular, to lipid oxidation, which affects colour, flavour, odour, texture, and nutritional value [6,7]. The rate of oxidation is related to the damage of tissue, stress and physical damages occurring during pre-slaughter and the rearing period, and to early post-mortem conditions, such as pH and the temperature of carcasses [8]
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