Better meat quality and shelf life in broiler chickens fed Polygain

Summary

• Meat quality and shelf-life are increasingly crucial for the poultry meat supply chain.

• Polygain demonstrated an ability to extend breast meat's lipid stability, a determinate of shelf-life.

• More broadly, meat quality indicators improved, including tenderness and drip loss metrics.

• Results published in Animals https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10071158

Background

The chicken meat industry is looking to improve meat quality, extend shelf life (and reduce waste in the supply chain). Polygain is high in antioxidants which may have a positive impact on the meat quality of broiler chickens.

Trial Design

The treatments for this trial included a control and four doses of Polygain (0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6% and 1.0%). For each treatment, there were three chicks per pen and four replicates. Birds were fed a standard commercial diet for 35 days, starting from day-old chicks.

After the trial, the meat drip loss was quantified by weighing 10 g of breast meat and then suspending it in a bottle with a sealed cap for 48 h. After 48 h, all of the samples were re-weighed to calculate drip loss. Warner Bratzler shear force (WBSF) was quantified on blocks of cooked meat 1 cm wide, 1 cm high, and 3 cm lengthwise. WBSF was measured using an inverted V-blade, and the crosshead speed was 200 mm/min. The lipid stability was measured by the standard TBARS assay for lipid peroxides in animal tissues by the thiobarbituric acid reaction.

Results

At 24 hours, all lipid stability was stable across all results

However, at 72 hours, the lipid stability of Polygain doses was much lower than control.

The meat tenderness improved with the addition of Polygain

Drip loss was also improved in a dose-response manner

These results are an excerpt from a published journal article:

Shakeri, M.; Cottrell, J.J.; Wilkinson, S.; Le, H.H.; Suleria, H.A.R.; Warner, R.D.; Dunshea, F.R. A Dietary Sugarcane-Derived Polyphenol Mix Reduces the Negative Effects of Cyclic Heat Exposure on Growth Performance, Blood Gas Status, and Meat Quality in Broiler Chickens. Animals 2020, 10, 1158. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10071158

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