SENSORY PROPERTIES
The results of sensory evaluation of processed chicken meat samples are presented in Table 1. The samples were assessed for appearance, taste, aroma, texture and general acceptability and the scores ranged from 6.40 to 8.08, 6.48 to 8.04, 6.92 to 8.04, 6.84 to 8.08 and 6.84 to 8.36. Fried samples had the highest score for all organoleptic parameters that was assessed and was liked very much followed by boiled samples which was liked moderately by the panelist. Smoked samples had the lowest scores for all the assessed sensory properties (appearance, taste, aroma, texture) and was liked slightly by the panelists. Figure 4.1 showed that the samples are significantly (p<0.05) different from each other, which showed the processing methods may significantly affects the preference of consumers. Generally, appearance is a yardstick that consumers used in accepting or rejecting a product under evaluation. Hence this is crucial in quality assessment. Result of this study is in agreement with the findings of (Gilbert et al., 2020) who stated that appearance serves as an important sensory attribute which is correlated with changes in aroma and flavour. Arroma is an important quality parameter, as poor aroma will discourage people from accepting food product (Gill and Newton, 2017). The higher scores of appearance for fried chicken meat samples was mainly because of more shrinkage, oil uptake (oily appearance) and crust colour due to optimum caraelization.
Table 1: Sensory characteristics of processed chicken samples
| Samples | Appearance | Taste | Aroma | Texture | General Acceptability |
| Boiled | 7.56a±1.26 | 7.32b±1.25 | 7.32b±1.15 | 7.44ab±1.26 | 7.72b±0.84 |
| Fried | 8.08a±0.99 | 8.04a±1.09 | 8.04a±0.98 | 8.08a±0.81 | 8.36a±0.76 |
| Smoked | 6.40b±1.50 | 6.48c±1.42 | 6.92b±0.99 | 6.84b±1.49 | 6.84c±1.03 |
a-c: Values are means ± s.d of duplicate determination. Mean value in the same column but with different superscript are significantly different (P<0.05).
Similarly, higher scores for aroma in case of fried chicken (p≤0.05) as compared to boiled and smoked chicken meat samples was probably due to synergistic effect of retained moisture, retained natural juice and oil uptake there by helping better release of flavour compounds. With regards to texture, fried samples had the highest scores (8.08), signifying firmer texture, which may be attributed to the low fat content. This assertion was corresponds with the reports of Ahmed et al. (1990) who reported that low fat meat products tend to be firmer than higher fat products. More so, the choice for fried samples could be due to the preference and familiarity of the panelists for fried chicken.Smoked chicken meat is generally less popular and less consumed by the larger population (Zariwala et al., 2012) and was demostrated by this study. This may be due to the dark colour and burnt aroma imparted by the smoke. From the assessment, the scores for general acceptability showed that chicken meat samples that was processed through frying was best preferred and accepted by the panelists.