Garlic peeling is a tedious, key, costly and time consuming unit operation in garlic processing. A power operated garlic peeler having a cylinder-concave mechanism was developed with an intention to reduce cost and time. Physical properties of garlic relevant for peeler development were identified and measured. The average length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, weight of garlic segment and weight of 1,000 garlic segment were measured as 26.3 mm, 10.4 mm, 8.7 mm, 13.3 mm, 0.5, 1.8 g and 1,813 g, respectively. An experimental garlic peeler having cylinder covered with 10 mm thick rubber was fabricated and evaluated for its performance with crop-machine parameters viz., cylinder speed (29, 36 and 42 rpm), cylinder-concave clearance (8, 10 and 12 mm), moisture content (23.1, 27.7, 33.4 and 40.5 % wet basis) and concave mechanisms. Crop-machine parameters were optimized based peeling efficiency and they found to be cylinder speed of 36 rpm, cylinder-concave clearance of 10 mm, mild steel square (8 × 8 screen). Prototype garlic peeler was evaluated with the optimized crop-machine parameters. The peeling efficiency, yield of peeled garlic and unpeeled garlic, damage and peel separation were 86.6, 86.2, 4.7, 9.15 and 96 %, respectively with a machine throughput capacity of 27 kg/h and the energy requirement of 1.15 kw-h. Operation cost of the peeler was determined on the basis of fixed and variable cost and found to be INR 22.9/h. The developed garlic peeler saved INR 16.11/kg (94.99 %) and 1.63 (97 %) man hours in comparison to the hand peeling of garlic.

A study was undertaken to investigate the effect of two different slaughter methods <italic>i.e</italic> traditional method (unilateral neck cut) and decapitation on the colour, pH, total heme pigments (THP) and water holding capacity (WHC) of the poultry meat. Fresh drumsticks (30 from conventionally slaughtered and 30 from slaughtered by decapitation method) of broiler birds (6 weeks of age; 2 hrs postmortem) were procured from retail meat shops located in different regions of the Ludhiana, Punjab, India. <italic>L*</italic> value (53.55) of conventionally slaughtered meat samples was significantly (P<0.01) higher than the decapitation method (47.97) but <italic>a*</italic> and <italic>b*</italic> values for conventionally slaughtered samples (7.86 and 12.62, respectively) were significantly (P<0.01) lower than the decapitated samples (11.42 and 15.90, respectively). These effects were due to the fact that the decapitated birds lost the least amount of blood compared to the conventionally slaughtered birds. pH of the conventionally slaughtered meat samples (6.02) were significantly (P<0.01) lower than the decapitated meat samples (6.32). The mean total heme pigments were significantly (P<0.01) higher in decapitated meat samples (2.20 mg/gm of meat sample) than the conventionally slaughtered meat samples (1.84 mg/gm of meat sample). Similarly WHC was significantly (P<0.01) higher of decapitated meat samples (52.91%) than the conventionally slaughtered meat samples (43.18%). Malachite Green test in 86.36% conventionally slaughtered meat samples showed perfect bleeding and 100% decapitated meat samples showed imperfect bleeding.

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A bio-assay was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of brown seaweed (Sargassum wigetti) on the performance of broilers. Broilers (400) were divided into 5 treatment groups. Each treatment had 8 replicates with 10 birds per replicate. The chicks of control (Group A) were fed a basal diet. Group B was fed a basal diet with bacitracin methylene disalicylate (BMD) at 0.005%. Treatment Groups C, D, and E received the basal diet with supplementation of 0.07, 0.1, and 0.13% brown seaweed, respectively. All the diets were made isocaloric and isonitrogenous. Standard management practices were followed in the rearing of birds. Parameters, viz. growth performance, immune response, total viable count (TVC) and carcass traits were studied for a period of six weeks. Group E exhibited higher weight gain and better feed conversion ratio compared to Groups D, C, and B. The feed consumption was similar for Groups C, D, and E. Mortality was lower (2.5%) in Groups B, C, D, and E compared to Group A (3.75%). The eviscerated, ready to cook, breast, thigh, and drumstick yields were greater in Group E whereas higher giblet weights were recorded in Groups D and E. The cell-mediated immune response was significantly better in Group E compared to Groups D, C, B, and A with higher weight of lymphoid organs (thymus and spleen). Groups D and E were associated with a lower TVC, followed by Group C compared to positive control (Group B) and negative control (Group A). It was concluded that supplementation of 0.13% brown seaweed in the diet of broilers improved growth performance, cell mediated immunity, total viable count and carcass traits.

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