Efficacy of fruits (red grapes, gooseberry and tomato) powder as natural preservatives in restructured chicken slices

In view of present national and international barriers regarding the use of chemical food additives in food processing and preservation, search for biological and plant origin food additives have notably increased for the production of high-quality, ready-to-cook or ready-to-eat products in recent years. So present study was envisaged with the objectives to augment the shelf life of restructured chicken slices by incorporating fruits (Red grapes, gooseberry and tomato) powder (1%) as natural preservatives and to assess their effect on microbiological and sensory attributes of the product under refrigerated (7 ± 1oC) storage. The products added with gooseberry and red grapes powder had significantly (P 0.01) lower standard plate counts (SPC) than control and reference [BHT (200 ppm) added] products except on 6th day of storage where increase in the SPC for BHT added products and control were not significant. No significant differences were existed in the SPC counts of tomato and red grapes powder added products throughout the storage period. Yeast and mould counts were not detected in all the products and control throughout the storage period. Sensory evaluation scores showed that restructured chicken slices incorporated with fruits powder were equally acceptable as reference product and rated good to very good for appearance, flavour, juiciness, texture and overall acceptability. Restructured chicken slices with fruits powder can be stored safely without much loss in its quality even upto 20 days under refrigerated condition.