Can live and dead broiler meat be identified through sensory and physicochemical attributes?

Abstract

The study was conducted to identify live and dead broiler meat through sensory and physicochemical attributes at 0 h and 24 h intervals. For this purpose, 15 live and 15 dead broilers were collected from the local market. After deboning, each live and dead bird’s breast, thigh, and liver were collected. A 2 × 2 factorial experiment was used for data analyses. Samples were preserved at 40C for 24 hrs. Different types of analysis, such as sensory (color, flavor, tenderness, juiciness, overall acceptability), physicochemical properties (pH, cooking loss, drip loss, water holding capacity), and instrumental color value L*, a*, b* were determined. In the case of breasts, sensory attributes like color, flavor, tenderness, juiciness, and overall acceptability mean value decreased (3.80 to 1.70) significantly (p<0.05) between live and dead birds and the mean value also decreased (3.50 to 2.00) significantly (p<0.05) at 0 h and 24 h. On the other hand, the physicochemical attributes and instrumental color values like water holding capacity, L*, a*, SI and Chroma mean value decreased significantly (p< 0.05) between live and dead birds, and the mean value of pH, drip loss, water holding capacity, and chroma also decreased significantly (p< 0.05) at 0h and 24h. In the case of the thigh, sensory attributes like color, flavor, tenderness, juiciness, and overall acceptability mean value decreased (4.90 to 1.70) significantly (p<0.05) between the two treatment levels, and there is no significant difference (p<0.05) in term of mean value at 0h and 24h of intervals. On the other hand, the physicochemical attributes like pH, water holding capacity, L*, a*, b*, SI, and chroma mean value decreased significantly (p< 0.05) between the two treatment levels, and the mean value of water holding capacity, a*, b*, SI, chroma also decreased significantly (p< 0.05) at 0 h and 24 h. In the case of the liver, sensory attributes like color, flavor, tenderness, juiciness, and overall acceptability mean value decreased (4.90 to 1.00) significantly (p<0.05) between the two treatment levels, and the mean value of color, tenderness, juiciness, overall acceptability also decreased (3.40 to 2.80) significantly (p<0.05) at 0h and 24h. On the other hand, the physicochemical attributes like pH, cooking loss, L*, b*, SI, and chroma mean value decreased significantly (p< 0.05) between the two treatment levels, and the mean value of cooking loss, drip loss, water holding capacity, a*, SI, chroma also decreased significantly (p<0.05) at 0h and 24h. On the basis of the sensory and physicochemical attributes, live broiler breast, thigh, and liver in fresh condition showed better quality. For differentiation, color, flavor, tenderness, juiciness, water holding capacity, L*, a*, b*, SI, and chroma value can be used as an identification marker between live and dead broiler meat, which is an ethical as well as religious issue.