Effect of feed restriction on some chemical and sensory properties of chicken meat

Abstract

Feed restriction application in the early stage of growth in broiler is common to prevent some health problems. However, feed restriction may affect the quality of meat. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of feed restriction on sensory properties of chicken meat. Total 60 Ross 308 broiler chickens were divided into three groups. The chickens in the first group were fed ad libitum (control group; AD), whereas the chickens in the second and the third group were exposed to two different feed restriction applications. The chickens in the second group (FR) were fed with 20% less food of ad libitum food intake, while the chickens in the third group (NF) were not fed between 9 am-3 pm. Feed restriction in both groups was applied when the chickens were between 7-21 days old. The chickens were slaughtered at week six of the trial and the carcasses were stored at -25 °C until chemical and sensory analyses. Descriptive sensory analysis was conducted to determine characteristic descriptive terms for breast and thigh body parts. In addition to sensory characteristics, some chemical properties including titratable acidity, dry matter and fat contents of the meat samples were determined. The data of chemical properties were analyzed by repeated measurement variance analysis, while the data of sensory evaluation were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and multidimensional scaling (MDS). The finding of this study demonstrated that juicy, chicken flavor and umami were leading sensory characteristics of chicken meat. Some undesirable flavor attributes including cardboard, feed, oxidized and organy were also determined at very low intensities. Juiciness and chicken flavor scores of breast meat in AD and NF groups did not show any significant differences. No significant differences were detected between feed regimes in the flavor intensities of thigh meat. Feed restriction did not affect acidity or dry matter, whereas feed restriction affected fat contents of breast and thigh. © Ankara Üniversitesi Ziraat Fakültesi.