Meat quality traits of Vietnamese indigenous Noi chicken at 91 days old

Indigenous chicken breeds have showed slower growth rate and yield lower meat production, compared to commercial broilers. However, their meat quality is valued by modern consumers. The present study aimed at analyzing the quality traits of breast meat samples of Noi broilers, one of the famous indigenous chicken breeds in Vietnam. A total of 355 breast fillet samples were collected to evaluate quality meat traits such as pH, surface color, drip loss, and cooking loss at different time points of 3, 24, and 48 hours after slaughtering as well as to analyze chemical compositions such as dry matter, crude protein and ether extract. As result, sex and cold-storage time significant affect some of quality traits of breast meat, whereas their interaction did not associate among the observed properties. After 3 hour-storage, the pH value was determined at 5.63, then decrease to 5.56 and 5.55 after 24 and 48 hours, respectively. The color values (L*, a*, and b*) were in the normal range reported from previous studies. Meat samples of two sexes did not vary in the cooking loss and drip loss values, whereas it was significantly different due to cold-storage time. The ether extract content of the meat was found negatively correlated with the cooking loss. The higher dry matter content of breast meat resulted in the lower drip loss value after 3h coldstorage (r=-0.12, P<0.05). There is a negative relationship between L* and a*. The variation demonstrated in this study can be used in breeding schemes in order to improve meat quality of Noi chicken lines.