Utilization of green plantain and soy chunk for the development of restructured chicken meat blocks

Easily available and economically viable vegetative extenders can be used in meat products formulation to improve the acceptability, nutritional and functional quality of the products. This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of green plantain pulp (GPP) and hydrated soy chunks (HSC) as an extender on the quality and acceptability of restructured chicken meat block (RCMB). Two levels of GPP viz., 8, 10% and three levels of HSC viz., 6, 9 and 12% were utilized as extenders, replacing the lean meat in the prestandardized formulation. The RCMB formulated without these extenders served as control and compared with treatment products for various physico-chemical and sensory properties. The pH and cooking yield increased significantly (P<0.05) in both the levels of plantain added products where as in all the three levels of soy added products pH was significantly (P<0.05) higher but cooking yield in this case was higher only for 8 and 10% soy addition in comparison to control. The moisture, ash percentage and shear force value increased with the increasing levels of both GPP and HSC, but protein and fat percent decreased with increasing levels in both the cases. For plantain added meat blocks, sensory attributes namely general appearance, flavor, binding strength, texture, juiciness and overall acceptability score decreased with increasing levels of extender where as for soy added products binding and texture scored higher in comparison to control. However all the sensory attributes of the meat block extended with 8% GPP and 6% HSC were comparable with control and indicated that these respective levels were optimum for the formulation of RCMB.