Influence of aromatic components from pig manure on odour and flavour of cooked chicken meat

An experiment with 96 broilers distributed across six treatments was carrie d out. Each treatment consisted of four cages each with four broilers. The six treatments were: the control (treatment 1), broilers placed in cages wi th a welded wire bottom hanging over smelling pig manure (treatment 2), or placed on a pig manure mat (treatment 3), combined with two intervals, i.e. 1 week (group a) and 2 weeks (group b) before slaughter. The content of sk atole in the abdominal fat was measured, and the odour and flavour impressi ons after cooking were evaluated by a taste panel. The treatments were comp ared with two control treatments: broilers produced traditionally in cages either without (treatment 1a) or with (treatment 1b) contact with their own manure for a fortnight. A higher skatole level in abdominal fat of broiler s in physical contact with pig manure (treatment 3) was measured, compared with broilers without physical contact with pig manure for at least 1 week (treatments 1 and 2) (p < 0.05). The consumer taste panel evaluation was no t affected by the fact that the broilers had been lying on pig manure. Howe ver, the evaluation of the odour of the cooked meat, when opening the cooki ng bag, was to some extent negatively affected by the experimental treatmen ts of broilers, which had physical contact. with the pig manure (p < 0.05). Furthermore, physical contact with the manure, regardless of whether it wa s broiler or pig manure, proved to affect the odour of the meat (p < 0.01). For broilers placed in cages without physical contact with the pig manure (treatments 2a and 2), the smell had no negative influence on either the od our or on the flavour of the meat, and the content of skatole was not diffe rent from that of the broilers on the control treatment. A taste panel eval uation performed on four broilers of the treatments 1a, 2b, and 3b showed n o flavour differences among treatments. Whether the broilers had been expos ed to a given treatment for 1 or 2 weeks made no difference, either to the skatole concentration or to the odour or flavour impression of the newly co oked chicken meat. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.