Abstract:
In this work, the meat quality and meat production performance of free-range chickens were evaluated. Ten healthy free-range chickens from 12 weeks of age were randomly selected, and 10 healthy caged chickens from 12 weeks of age were used as the control group. The chickens were slaughtered in accordance with "poultry performance terms and methods". The breast muscle and thigh muscle were collected for meat quality analysis. The cooking loss, pH, redness (a*), yellowness (b*), lightness (L*), electrical conductivity and, fat and protein content in muscle, abdominal fat rate and slaughter performance were determined. The results showed that the cooking loss, pH45 min, pH24 h, b*45min, protein, fat, EC24 h of free-range chicken breast muscle were 23.36%, 5.65, 5.65, 17.67, 83.16%, 3.89%, 6.80 mS/cm, respectively. The cooking loss, pH45 min, pH24 h, b*45 min, protein, fat, EC24 h of leg muscles were 24.21%, 5.88, 5.84, 16.80, 72.81%, 13.37%, 5.00 mS/cm, respectively. The abdominal fat rate, slaughter rate, total eviscerated rate, breast muscle rate, and leg muscle rate of free-range chickens were 3.31%, 91.43%, 64.90%, 22.76%, and 23.13%, respectively. Compared with caged chickens, free-range chickens had better slaughter performance, meat color, freshness, and free-range chicken muscles had the characteristics of low fat.
