Comparison of degree of liking for “Consumer sensory characteristics” of organic and conventional broiler meat by young consumers in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Chicken meat does not get restrictions when compare to beef & pork within Sri Lankan community. There is increasing trend of consuming broiler chicken meat as the per capita consumption has grown up to 9.8kg /year in 2020. Consumer sensory characteristics such as appearance, smell, tenderness, taste, colour, juiciness and overall likeness are used to compare the preference of organic and conventional chicken meats by using young consumers. Objective of the study is to discover the acceptance level of organic chicken meat over conventional broiler chicken meat among young generation by analyzing consumer sensory characters of both chicken meats. Local breed (organic) and fast growing conventional (non-organic) birds were reared in two batches with equal facilities each comprising of 100 birds. 10 birds were selected randomly from each group which was fed with organic and non-organic broiler feed having same nutritional composition. Conventional birds & organic birds were slaughtered at 32 & 75 days of age respectively. 10 young both sexed tasters of 20-25 years old age were randomly selected and were served with two samples of organic and conventional broiler meat. Breast meat of 10 Nos of selected chicken was received from the processing and cooked to 82 0C internal muscle temperature. A 10g muscle of P. major muscle, and served for analysis of sensory characteristics. The tasters were instructed to eat crackers, drink water between each sample to clear the palate, and pause for 20 s between samples. All samples were consumed. Results of consumer sensory characteristics appearance, smell, tenderness, taste, colour, juiciness and overall likeness are reported in the sheet after eating both chicken meat samples from each category. Degree of liking for sensory characters were recorded by a questioner having 1 to 5 scale; (1= strongly unlike; 2 = unlike; 3 = average; 4 = like & 5 = strongly like) after tasting. According to analyzed results 70% of the population likes the appearance of organic chicken while 50% of them like conventional. The population prefers taste (40%); colour (30%) & juiciness (60%) of conventional meat. There is no difference regarding the preference of tenderness of both type of meat. Overall (60%) prefer organic chicken meat where as 40% for conventional. Therefore it can conclude that young generation readily accepts organic chicken meat.