Quality of some ready to eat poultry products

Abstract

The current study wasdesigned to evaluate sensory quality, the degree of deterioration criteria and bacteriological examination of some RTE (ready to eat) poultry meat products such as chicken ham, chicken shawarma, chicken with herbs, smoked turkey and turkey smoked lobes marketed in Menofia and Gharbia governorates. Therefore, a total sixty of these commercially produced RTE poultry products (Twelve of each) were collected from these supermarkets. The collected samples were exposed to sensory analysis, deterioration criteria and bacteriological examination to assess the quality of these RTE chicken meat products and evaluate the degree of hygienic conditions inside some poultry meat processing plants. The results showed that marked deterioration of all sensory attributes especially in chicken with herbs, chicken ham and smoked turkey RTE poultry meat products. In addition, marked increase in pH values of most of the examined samples especially in chicken with herbs samples and higher TBA value was recorded in most of the examined samples especially in smoked turkey. Concerning the results of bacteriological examination, it was noticed that significant increased in all investigated bacterial counts (Total mesophilic bacterial counts, Total psychrotrophs, Total staphylococcus counts and Coliforms counts) in all examined RTE poultry meat products samples. Some food born-pathogens were isolated from the examined samples such as Staph. aureus (from chicken ham) and E. coli (from chicken shawarma, smoked turkey and turkey smoked lobes). However, all the examined samples were negative for E. coli O157:H7and Salmonella strains. Therefore, it could be concluded that all the examined RTE poultry meat products were deteriorated which indicate that these samples were produced and prepared under bad hygienic measures that are responsible for lowering their quality and reduce their shelf life.