Effects of Microencapsulated Blend of Organic Acids and Essential Oils as a Feed Additive on Quality of Chicken Breast Meat

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation based on a blend of microencapsulated organic acids (sorbic and citric) and essential oils (thymol and vanillin) on chicken meat quality. A total of 420 male Ross 308 chicks were randomly assigned to two dietary treatments: the control group was fed with conventional diet (CON), while the other group received the control diet supplemented with 0.5% of a microencapsulated blend of organic acids and essential oils (AVI). In breast meat samples, intramuscular fat content and saturated/polyunsaturated fatty acids ratio were reduced by AVI supplementation (p p p p 0.05) at an initial time, and higher loads of enterococci after 4 days of refrigerated storage (p Listeria spp., Campylobacter spp., and Clostridium spp. was found. TBARS values of the cooked meat were lower in the AVI treatment compared to CON (p p < 0.05). Overall, organic acids and essential oils could improve the quality and shelf-life of poultry meat.

Keywords

• essential oils
• organic acids
• poultry meat
• feed additive
• meat shelf-life
• meat quality