Research on quality and shelf life of cool meat of some popular chicken breeds in Viet Nam

Abstract

In the world, almost all chicken meat is used in chilled or frozen meat to ensure quality and food hygiene and safety, but in Viet Nam, the habit of using hot chicken meat is still quite common (do not lower the carcass temperature after slaughter, in storing, transporting or consuming),  leading to a very high risk of food poisoning from this raw material. The study was conducted to evaluate the quality of cool (chilled) chicken meat of 02 common breeds of chicken raised in Viet Nam, Indian River Meat (coding C2) and Tam Hoang (coding C3), raised at commercial chicken farms, slaughtered and chilled at the factory of 3F Food Co., Ltd (Binh Duong province). Chicken carcasses were chilled down to 0-4°C immediately after slaughter and then cut and packed for transportation at this temperature. This study has developed 19/75 sensory property terms that strongly influence the overall quality of cool chicken meat. The results of evaluating the quality of cool chicken meat at 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14 days showed that, in the period from day 1 to day 5, the values of pH, TVB-N, and total aerobic microorganisms (TAM) values of chicken breasts and thighs of both C2 and C3 showed very little variation and were within the allowable limits, respectively. The sensory properties were evaluated not to be inferior to that of freshly slaughtered meat surgery. By day 7, there were signs of quality deterioration, pH, TVB-N, and TAM all exceeded the regulations, and the level of bad sensory properties gradually increased. Thus, chicken meat products in this study should be stored for up to 5 days.