Nutritional strategies to produce organic and healthy poultry products

Abstract

Agricultural poultry products including eggs and meat are important sources of crude protein, lipids, minerals, and micronutrients that play a critical role in basic nutrition. Traditionally, meat and eggs are associated with negative factors in human health, mainly due to their content of triglyceride and cholesterol. It is well known that the response of serum cholesterol levels in human to dietary cholesterol consumption depends on many factors like hormonal factors, genetic makeup, ethnicity, and the nutritional condition of the consumer. Recently, there has been increasing demands for organic food, which are expected to continue to increase in the near future, due to their ability to reduce the risks of many diseases and enhance the physical and mental well-being of the consumer, besides satisfying hunger and supplying substantial nutrients. Organic foods of animal origin are produced by feeding the animal on a specific diet or by using some techniques, like induced genetic mutation, genetic engineering, cross-breeding, etc. with an aim to guarantee the presence of nutrients, which may be useful to human health. The organic foods of poultry origin may only include organic eggs and organic chickens. To produce organic/designer food, it is essential to study the available and sustainable nutritional strategies and evaluate knowledge-based alternatives of growth-enhancers as well as develop more efficient models and protocols for quantification of the bioavailability and bio-accessibility of bioactive compounds for health studies in animal and human. Organic eggs, viz., specialty, vegetarian, immune-powered, and functional and designer eggs, do have increased content of vitamins, minerals, and essential pigments like carotenoids, lowered cholesterol and fat, balanced ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, antibacterial active principles, and an additional boost of antibodies. On the other hand, organic meat contained a higher concentration of tocopherol and conjugated linoleic acid, omega-3 fatty acids, protein, and amino acids; all these factors contribute to the maintenance and the improvement of consumer health. This chapter offers a simple overview of the significance and health benefits of organic poultry products, and it explores the possibilities of the production and development of organic food by technological strategies.