Evaluation of Chicken Nuggets Formulated with Loquat (Eribotrya japonica) Seeds Powder

Abstract

The current research aimed to study the potential of using the loquat seeds powder as a component for nuggets production and its effect on quality characterizations of nuggets. Chicken nuggets produced using powder of loquat seed instead of wheat flour (w/w) by 0, 3.3, 6.6 and 10% levels substitution. The prepared chicken nuggets were evaluated for its chemical composition, cooking quality, Physico-chemical properties, microbiological evaluation and sensory attributes. Results illustrated that, substitution with LSP increased crude protein, ash and crude lipids content in the nuggets samples relative to control. Nuggets prepared with substituting wheat flour by different ratios of (LSP), at all the levels of incorporation, exhibited higher moisture and pH than control.  In addition, total carbohydrates, cooking loss, and TBA of nuggets samples were decreased with increasing substitution levels of LSP. Utilization of loquat seed powder reduced the total bacterial count, yeast and mold of nugget samples compared with control sample. All samples had a high overall acceptability, particularly at 6.6 % level LSP. In conclusion, agro-industrial by-products such as LSP are good sources of phenolic compounds that have very potent antioxidant activity. Finally, it could be said that the addition of (LSP) appeared to be most effective as antimicrobial agent at the level of all used supplementing ratios in reduction of TBC in all treated samples. Moreover, its efficiency in controlling oxidative rancidity in chicken nuggets products enhancing the shelf- life without affecting on its sensory attributes.