Quality Assessment of Vacuum Packaged Chicken Snacks Stored at Room Temperature

Abstract

Chicken snacks were prepared by utilizing spent hen meat, sodium caseinate and rice flour, spice mix, condiments, common salt, phosphate and baking powder. The control was prepared in a similar manner except that, spent hen meat was substituted by equal quantity of rice flour. Chicken snack and control were packaged under vacuum in laminated (polyethylene/aluminium foil) pouches (size 25 × 20 cm), stored at 30 ± 2°C. The changes in physico-chemical characteristics, sensory attributes and microbiological profile of vacuum packaged chicken snacks, as well as control were analyzed during storage at room temperature (30 ± 2°C) for 30 days with regular intervals of six days. Both chicken snacks and control indicated non-significant effect of treatment on days of storage with respect to the contents of fat, protein, ash, pH, total plate count (TPC), yeast and mould counts (YMC). However, shear force value in treated products were significantly (P<0.05) different on day 0 and 6 from the rest of the storage days. The TBA values for control on day 0, 6, 12 were found significantly different from the rest of the storage days. Sensory attributes for both control and treated products were found to be less affected by the days of storage in the whole of the storage period. Overall comparison of physico-chemical, microbiological and sensory profiles of control and treated products found highly significant (P<0.01) difference except for some values of moisture, shear force and pH. The study revealed that both products can be stored under vacuum in very good condition up to 30 days at room temperature. Key words: Chicken snack, spent hen meat, rice flour, sodium caseinate, vacuum.