Meat quality of Sasso T44 and Koekoek cockerels exposed to temperature variation with supplementary coriander seed powder

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of ambient temperature and coriander seed supplementations on meat quality of Sasso T44 and Koekoek. Both breeds were exposed to two temperatures rooms with a heated room of 32±1.2 0 c from 11:00 am to 16:00 pm and the normal room temperature of average maximum and minimum of 23.8±3 0 c and 16.6±1.6 0 c, respectively, with a relative humidity between 34.5 ±4 to 44.8±3%. Both breeds were also further randomly allocated to three levels of 0g/kg, 5g/kg and 10g/kg coriander seed powder supplementations. The experiment was conducted from 10 to 20 weeks of age. There was a slight variation in meat color on lightness (L*; P<0.05) due to temperature at 48 hours after slaughtered. Breast meat from cockerels reared in a heated room became slightly lighter compared to groups reared at normal temperature (unheated room). However, the overall meat color did not categorized under the paled color of meat, rather it can be in the darker than normal category. Moreover, breast meat of Koekoek at 1hour after slaughtered was more yellow (P<0.05) in color and higher chroma values, while at 48 hours, Sasso T44 had redder meat (P<0.05) than Koekoek. In addition the thigh meat of Koekoek had more total ash than Sasso T44 (P<0.05). However, Sasso T44 breast meat had better water holding capacity due to lower in drip loss percentage (P<0.05) than Koekoek. This research indicated that some meat quality variations shown between breeds and due to temperature. However, further insights into other physical meat qualities and sensory evaluations may also reveal to the meat quality of these breeds.