QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILER CHICKEN MEAT AND THEIR INFLUENCING FACTORS: AN OVERVIEW

Abstract

The intensive production of broilers in the local poultry farming has already been
achieved. Now the focus is being put on improving the quality of meat by changing the
quality characteristics of broiler chicken meat. Appearance, texture, juiciness, water content,
firmness, tenderness, smell and taste are the most important characteristics of meat that
influence on consumers' evaluation of quality before and after purchasing a meat product.
Quantifiable characteristics of meat such as water-holding capacity, drip loss, cooking loss,
pH, shelf life, collagen content, protein solubility, cohesiveness and fat binding capacity are
essential for processors involved in production of meat. Poultry feeding has a significant
impact on the quality and safety of poultry meat. Technological processes in the poultry meat
production have a greater impact on the consumer characteristics (juiciness, tenderness, smell)
of meat. After slaughter, meat biochemical changes determine the final quality of the product.
The carcass temperature after slaughter has a profound influence on rigor mortis, while
physico-chemical changes, which can be observed in muscles, are related to postmortem
glycolysis, temperature and pH of meat. Primary and further processing have been given high
priority in terms of the nutritional quality of broiler chicken meat.
Thus, the broiler chicken meat quality depends on many factors, which make the
process very difficult. Violation of processing methods, which lead to a change in quality
characteristics of broiler chicken meat, influence on a decrease in demand for products and
economic deterioration of the processing plant.