Sensory, Deterioration and Bacteriological Assessment of Some Ready to Eat Poultry Products

Abstract

This study was carried out to assess the quality of some RTE (ready to eat) chicken meat products collected from different poultry meat processing plants in Menofia and Gharbia governorate. a A total of 60 commercially produced RTE poultry products such as chicken ham, chicken shawarma, chicken with herps, smoked turkey and turkey smoked lobes (12 each) were collected from supermarkets and examined for sensory, deterioration criteria and bacteriological quality. The results revealed that the sensory panel scores of all examined RTE poultry meat products samples were generally low especially in chicken with herps, chicken ham and smoked turkey RTE poultry meat products. Moreover, pH values of most of the examined samples were relatively alkaline whereas the lowest value was recorded in smoked turkey samples and highest value was observed in chicken with herps samples. In addition, higher thiobarbituric acid (smoked turkey) and slightly increases of total volatile basic nitrogen values (chicken with herps) were recorded in most of the examined samples. All investigated bacterial counts were significantly high in all examined RTE poultry meat products samples. Staph. aureus was isolated from chicken ham and E. coli strains were isolated from chicken shawarma, smoked turkey and turkey smoked lobes. However, E. coli O157:H7 and salmonella strains failed to be isolated from all the examined samples. It could be concluded that all the examined RTE poultry meat products were deteriorated in terms of sensory, chemical and bacteriological terms and exceeded the limit described by E.S. (3493/2005) for cooked poultry meat products. In addition, these samples were probably produced and prepared under bad hygienic measures which could be responsible for lowering their quality and reduce shelf life.