Analysis of breast texture on chicken fed with organic acids or antibiotic in food

Abstract

This work aimed to analyze the texture of 42-day-old chicken breast muscles which underwent three treatments with the food (control group, with no additives; group with addition of a free organic acids mixture; and group with addition of growth-promoting antibiotic). The experiment had a random design and each treatment presented four repetitions of 12 chickens. For the texture analysis, two chicken breasts were chosen in each repetition, which were cut and cooked. Subsequently, four samples of each chicken breast were collected to measure the shear force. The shear force of the control group presented the lowest mean value (18.93kgf), the mean value from the free organic acids treatment was 19.46kgf, and the mean value from the antibiotics treatment was 18.94kgf. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) between groups, indicating that adding free organic acids or growth-promoting antibiotics in the food of chickens did not influence the shear force of the breast meat texture of these animals.

Keywords

• Organic acids
• Poultry
• Texture