Effect of Chitosan Coating Enriched with Cinnamon Oil (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) on Storage Stability of Refrigerated Chicken Meat Nuggets

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the shelf-life of chitosan and cinnamon oil coated chicken meat nuggets under refrigeration conditions. Three types of coated nuggets were developed viz., Meat coated with Chitosan (1%) and Cinnamon oil (0.05%) (T1), direct addition of Chitosan and Cinnamon oil in emulsion (T2) and nuggets dipped in Chitosan and Cinnamon oil (T3) and were aerobically packaged in low-density polyethylene pouches and assessed for various storage quality parameters under refrigerated (4±1°C) conditions during 28 days of storage. T2 had slightly higher emulsion stability and yield although no significant difference (P>0.05) in between samples. T1 exhibited better storage stability as indicated by lower lipid oxidation than other treatments and the control. Texture profile studies indicated that T2 sample had higher hardness value than other samples. SPC significantly (P<0.05) increased in all the samples with control having the highest value followed by T1, T3 and T2 throughout the storage period. T2 sample exhibited lowest sensory scores and were not accepted by sensory panellist while T1 and T3 samples had better acceptability. It was concluded that chitosan in combination with cinnamon oil had synergistic effect to extend the shelf-life of products (T1 and T3)