Quality characteristics and storage stability of restructured chicken meat blocks extended with different combinations of vegetative extenders

Restructured meat products are popular among consumers, because of its resemblance with intact cuts with low cost. Different vegetative extenders in meat products has been incorporated to increase its product attributes such as yield, juiciness, slicability and added functionality with cost reduction. Present study was conducted to develop restructured chicken meat blocks (RCMB) extended with different combination of vegetative extenders. The extenders viz. lentil flour, sorghum flour, potato and water chestnut flour were mixed in different combination to yield three types of blends viz: A, B and C, to be used as replacer of the lean meat at 15 % level in prestandardized restructured meat block formulation. Both control and extended RCMB were evaluated for physico-chemical properties such as cooking yield, pH, moisture, protein, fat, moisture protein ratio, ash, shear force value and sensory attributes. Cooking yield and ash percentages was significantly higher (P < 0.05) and protein percentage was significantly lower (P < 0.05) than control for all the treatment products. Shear force value of product with extender blend C was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than control. General appearance and flavour score for all three treatment products were significantly lower (P < 0.05) than control but overall acceptability score for blend C was quite comparable to control. On the basis of physico-chemical properties and sensory attributes, the most acceptable combination of extenders was found to be blend C. The product with extender blend C was further assessed for texture profile analysis and shelf life for 15 days at refrigeration temperature (4 +/- 1 A degrees C). Texture profile analysis revealed that treated RCMB had significantly lower (P < 0.05) adhesiveness value than control but hardness, springiness, cohesiveness, gumminess and chewiness values were comparable to control. TBARS values for test product as well as control almost increased significantly (P < 0.05) throughout the storage period. Counts for mesophilic, psychrotrophic did not exceed log(10) 3.12 and 2.93 cfu/g, log(10) 2.43 and 2.65 cfu/g, for control and test RCMB, respectively. In spite of decrease in sensory scores with time of storage for both control and test RCMB, the scores was rated above good throughout storage period and it was concluded that RCMB were acceptable for at least 15 days in cold storage (4 A +/- 1 A degrees C) under aerobic conditions in polyethylene bags.