Formulation and quality evaluation of chicken meat balls

Abstract

A study was undertaken to examine the feasibility of formulation of chicken meat balls from deboned minced meat of broilers and to evaluate its shelf-life.

The ready-to-cook yield, total loss and meat to bone ratio averaged 72.76 per cent, 27.24 per cent and 1.31 respectively for broilers used for the study.

The chicken meat balls prepared as per two recipes were kept under refrigeration (50 C) upto six days and under frozen (-150 C) storage upto 60 days. Representative samples were analysed qualitatively and evaluated organoleptically by a taste panel on zero, four and six days under refrigeration and zero, 15, 30, 45 60 days of storage under frozen conditions. It was observed that irrespective of different temperatures and duration of storage, the proximate components, viz., moisture, protein, fat and total ash of the product remained unaltered. At 50 C the thiobarbituric acid (TBA) number and total bacterial counts were increased significantly with increase in the duration of storage. At -150 C the TBA number was found to increase, whereas the total bacterial counts decreased significantly as the storage period increased. The chicken meat balls prepared by both the recipes were found to be equally good and acceptable organoleptically. Twelve and thirteen chicken meat balls could be made from each 1000 g of deboned chicken meat of recipes I and II respectively. The cost of a chicken meat ball(100 g) prepared by recipe II was found to be less comparatively.

From the above findings it was concluded that a highly acceptable, nutritious, ready-to-cook meat product could be prepared from deboned minced chicken meat. The optimum storage temperatures for its short-term storage up to a period of four days and that for long-term storage up to 60 days were found to be 50 C and -150 C respectively, without any quality deterioration of the product.