Effect of skin, enrobing and refrigerated storage on the quality characteristics of chicken meat balls

The study was conducted to evaluate the utilization of skin in the preparation of meat balls. The meat balls were prepared by incorporating skin at different levels viz. 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% replacing lean meat in the formulation. The meat balls were further enrobed to see the effect of coating on the quality characteristics of meat balls. Parameters namely emulsion stability, cooking yield, proximate composition and sensory parameters of meat balls decreased significantly (P < 0.05) with the increasing skin level. Based on various sensory parameters, meat balls containing 50% skin were optimized as best among coated as well as non-coated meat balls. Both coated as well as control meat balls were aerobically packaged in low density polyethylene (LDPE) pouches and were analyzed at a regular interval of 0, 7 and 14 days for various quality parameters during refrigerated storage at 4±1°C. TBARS value, total plate count and psychrophilic count increased significantly (P < 0.05) whereas the scores for various sensory attributes decreased significantly (P < 0.05) during storage. Coliforms were not detected throughout the period of storage. Thus, meat balls utilizing chicken skin were stored for a period of 14 days at refrigerated temperature (4±1°C) with changes in the quality parameters under acceptable limits.