Effect of yoghurt, lemon juice and garlic-ginger paste marination on the quality of chicken meat during refrigerated storage

Abstract

This study evaluated the effects of natural marinating agents on the quality, oxidative stability, microbial safety and sensory acceptability of broiler chicken breast meat during refrigerated storage at 4°C for 9 days. Fresh broiler breast meat samples were assigned to four treatments: T0 (unmarinated control), T1 (1% yoghurt), T2 (1% lemon juice), and T3 (1% garlic + 1% ginger paste). The experiment followed a 4 × 4 factorial arrangement under a completely randomized design with three replications per treatment-day combination. Samples were analyzed at 0, 3, 6 and 9 days for sensory attributes, proximate composition, pH, instrumental color, drip loss, cooking loss, shear force value, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), and total viable count (TVC). Marination and storage interval significantly affected all major quality traits. Storage increased pH, dry matter, ether extract, ash, drip loss, cooking loss, TBARS and TVC, while reducing crude protein, instrumental color stability and sensory scores. Lemon juice (T2) showed the strongest pH-control effect, maintaining the lowest pH at day 9 (6.050) compared with the control (6.377). Garlic-ginger paste (T3) provided the strongest overall preservation response, retaining the highest day-9 crude protein (21.457%), dry matter (27.030%), ether extract (2.319%), and sensory acceptability (3.280), while producing the lowest drip loss (3.408%), cooking loss (26.508%), shear force value (20.633 N), TBARS (0.209 mg MDA/kg), and TVC (6.087 log10 CFU/g). The control exceeded the microbiological acceptability threshold of 7.0 log10 CFU/g by day 9, whereas all marinated treatments remained below this level. Pearson correlation confirmed that quality deterioration was driven by the strong positive association of pH with TVC and cooking loss, and the negative association of oxidative and microbial deterioration with overall acceptability. Overall, garlic-ginger paste was the most effective formulation for maintaining chicken meat quality during refrigerated storage, while lemon juice was most effective for pH reduction. The higher additive load in T3 should be considered when interpreting its superior formulation-level performance.