Factors Influencing Poultry Meat Quality and Derived Products in Agriculture

The term quality in relation to poultry is complex, as it varies depending on perspective. For instance, a seller might assess quality based on marketability and price, but this overlooks the product’s intrinsic characteristics. Since consumer satisfaction drives purchases, quality is better defined from the consumer’s viewpoint.

When consumers purchase a poultry product, cook, and serve it, expectations are set for appearance, taste, and texture. If these characteristics fail to meet expectations, the product is deemed lower quality. This article examines factors affecting poultry meat quality and explores products derived from poultry meat.

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Key Factors Affecting Poultry Meat Quality

1. Appearance and Color

At times, distinguishing appearance from color proves challenging, yet the two are often interwoven in assessing poultry meat quality. Color of cooked or raw poultry meat significantly influences perceptions of freshness, guiding consumer purchasing decisions based on visual appeal.

Poultry is unique, sold both with and without skin, and is the only species known to exhibit dramatic color contrasts in muscles (white and dark meat). Breast meat is expected to display a pale pink hue when raw, while thigh and leg meat typically appear dark red.

Deviations from these expected colors pose challenges for the poultry industry. Factors such as bird age, sex, strain, diet, intramuscular fat, meat moisture content, pre-slaughter conditions, and processing variables affect poultry meat color.

The presence of muscle pigments, myoglobin and hemoglobin, determines meat color. Discoloration may stem from the quantity of these pigments, their chemical state, or how light reflects off the meat. Discoloration can affect an entire muscle or be confined to specific areas, such as bruises or broken blood vessels.

Breast muscle, comprising about 5 percent of live weight, is particularly prone to discoloration due to its sensitivity and light appearance, making color changes noticeable. Extreme environmental temperatures or stress from live handling before processing can discolor broiler and turkey breast meat, with the extent varying by individual bird response.

Bruise color, blood presence, and clot formation indicate injury age and origin. A bruise transitions from a fresh, bloody red with no clotting shortly after injury to a normal flesh color 120 hours later.

The amount of blood and clot formation helps distinguish whether injuries occurred during catching/transportation or processing, with field injuries often exacerbated by plant equipment or handling.

2. Texture and Tenderness

Consumers associate poultry meat quality with texture and flavor during consumption. Tenderness depends on the rate and extent of chemical and physical changes as muscle transforms into meat. Upon an animal’s death, blood circulation ceases, halting oxygen and nutrient supply to muscles.

Without these, muscles deplete energy, contract, and stiffen in a process called rigor mortis. Eventually, muscles soften, becoming tender when cooked. Factors disrupting rigor mortis formation or the subsequent softening process impact tenderness.

For instance, birds struggling before or during slaughter deplete muscle energy faster, accelerating rigor mortis and resulting in tough texture. Similarly, environmental stress (extreme hot or cold temperatures) before slaughter can toughen meat.

High pre-slaughter stunning, elevated scalding temperatures, prolonged scalding times, and machine picking can also cause poultry meat to be tough. Tenderness of portioned or boneless cuts is influenced by the timing of post-mortem deboning.

Muscles deboned early (0 to 2 hours post-mortem) retain energy for contraction, becoming tough when removed. To prevent this, meat is typically aged for 6 to 24 hours before deboning, though this increases processing costs.

Early deboning results in 50 to 80 percent tough meat, whereas waiting 6 hours yields 70 to 80 percent tender meat. The poultry industry has adopted post-slaughter electrical stimulation to hasten rigor mortis, reducing aging time before deboning.

Unlike energy depletion in live birds, which causes toughness, electrical stimulation post-mortem mimics nerve impulses, prompting muscle contraction, energy depletion, and faster rigor mortis. This allows deboning within two hours post-mortem, saving equipment costs, time, space, and energy, though the technique remains in development.

3. Flavor Characteristics

Flavor, encompassing taste and odor, is a critical quality attribute determining poultry meat acceptability. During cooking, flavor develops from sugar and amino acid interactions, lipid and thermal oxidation, and thiamin degradation.

These chemical changes, while not unique to poultry, combine with poultry’s distinct lipids and fats to create a characteristic flavor. Few production and processing factors significantly alter poultry meat flavor, making it challenging to either produce defects or enhance flavor.

Chicks require three to four months to reach a suitable size for slaughter, with butchering possible up to 8 months, after which meat may become tough. Many opt for Cornish Cross Hybrids for meat birds due to their favorable growth.

Bird age at slaughter (young or mature) affects flavor, with minor influences from strain, diet, environmental conditions (litter, ventilation), scalding temperatures, chilling, packaging, and storage, though these effects are typically imperceptible to consumers.

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Products Derived from Poultry Meat

1. Chicken Sausages Production

Sausages are defined as minced, seasoned meats stuffed into casings, which may be smoked, cured, fermented, or heated. They are made from any edible part of a slaughtered, veterinary-inspected animal, combined with non-meat ingredients.

As comminuted meat products, sausages are typically salted, seasoned, or spiced, and recognized as emulsified, stuffed, linked, smoked, and cooked products. Based on characteristics and processing methods, they are categorized into fresh, cured, and fermented sausages.

2. Chicken Suya and Kilishi Preparation

Suya, a Hausa term meaning “to fry” or “fried meat,” is an intermediate-moisture meat product, easy to prepare and highly relished. Originally made from beef and later extended to other ruminants, suya production now includes non-ruminant animals like poultry.

Suya and kilishi are produced by roasting spiced, salted meat slices or strips, typically beef. Kilishi differs from suya due to its lower moisture content (6-14% versus 25-35%) and lack of roasting.

Dambu-nama, a Nigerian traditionally spiced, cooked, pounded, shredded, and dried meat product, is commonly made from beef, goat meat, mutton, or camel meat and is popular in Northern Nigeria. It developed as a preservation method for meat among Hausa and Fulani herdsmen in the absence of refrigerated storage.

3. Marinated Poultry Processing

Most recipes for marinating poultry recommend 6 to 24 hours. Prolonged marination beyond two days may break down meat fibers, resulting in a mushy texture. Marination must occur in the refrigerator, and used marinade should be boiled if applied during grilling. Saving used marinade is not advised.

Storage, Cooking, and Nutritive Value of Poultry Meat

1.Storage Period for Poultry Meat

If kept frozen continuously, chicken remains safe indefinitely, rendering package expiration dates irrelevant post-freezing. For optimal quality, taste, and texture, whole raw chicken should be frozen for up to one year, parts for 9 months, and giblets or ground chicken for 3 to 4 months.

Cooked chicken maintains best quality if frozen for up to 4 months, poultry casseroles or pieces covered with broth or gravy for 6 months, and chicken nuggets or patties for 1 to 3 months.

2. Cooking Temperature for Poultry Meat

The minimum oven temperature for cooking chicken is 325°F (162.8°C). A food thermometer ensures food reaches a safe minimum internal temperature of 165°F (73.9°C) to destroy foodborne bacteria.

Whole chickens must reach this temperature throughout, checked in the innermost part of the thigh, wing, and thickest part of the breast. Consumers may prefer higher temperatures for personal taste.

3. Nutritive Value of Poultry Meat

Poultry provides protein, B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine), vitamin E, zinc, iron, and magnesium. Protein supports healthy bones, muscles, skin, cartilage, and blood cells. Poultry meat is rich in phosphorus, other minerals, and B-complex vitamins, containing less fat than most beef and pork cuts.

It is low in harmful trans fats and high in beneficial monounsaturated fats, which constitute about half of its total fat content. A 3-ounce (85-gram) serving of chicken breast contains 122 calories and 24 grams of protein, along with niacin, selenium, and phosphorus.

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