Research Progress on Quality Characteristics and Improvement of Livestock and Poultry Liver for Human Consumption

Abstract

Liver is one of the important edible byproducts of livestock and poultry. It has high nutritional value and a long history of human consumption in China. However, liver, when used as food, has the problems of off-flavor, poor texture, and high risk of residual harmful substances, which results in low overall food utilization rate. This not only reduces the overall profit of the meat processing industry, but also causes a waste of resources. This review focuses on recent research on the nutrition, flavor, texture, and quality improvement of livestock and poultry liver. Moreover, the defects and blind spots in current research are summarized. It is expected that this review will be helpful for further research and provide a basis for the high-value utilization of livestock and poultry liver.

Keywords

• liver; nutrient; flavor; texture properties; regulation technologies