Shelf stability of meat pickle developed from Kadaknath

This study aims to have a product with enhanced shelf stability from the Kadaknath bird. It is localized to its native tract in India and is unknown to a major part of the world. As in tropical countries, the meat products prepared have limited shelf-life and restricted market access, hence, the pickle was developed to enhance its access to areas other than a native tract of Kadaknath.

The product was developed to assess the effect of cooking and dehydration on sensory and microbial features while enhancing shelf stability. A comparison between cooking methods i.e. steam cooking (SC) and microwave cooking (MC) followed by dehydration to get steam cooked + dehydration (SCD) and microwave cooked + dehydration (MCD) were subjected for the study.

The study revealed that sensory evaluation, from 0 to 100 days, for all the sensory parameters indicated that SC and MC samples scored more values than SCD and MCD, however, with the storage the values increased initially on the 20th day followed by a gradual decrease. The total plate count (colony forming unit) on 0 day for SC and MC were 2.51 and 2.46, whereas for SCD and MCD the values were 1.94 and 1.98, respectively, indicating significantly (P = 0.01) lower values in dehydrated meat pickle preparations (SCD and MCD) in comparison to samples prepared without dehydration (SC and MC). Similarly, on the 60th day, the meat pickle treatments mentioned as SC and MC had the yeast and mold counts (colony forming unit) detected as 1.79 and 1.88, respectively, however, the organisms were not detectable in treatments SCD and MCD.

Developed product may be suitable for long distance marketing and making the local delicacy available to distant places.

The literature review indicated that though meat pickles have been prepared earlier most of the preparations involved chemical preservatives/antioxidants and trials with hurdles such as dehydration and cooking variations were scanty.