Research Information System
International Journal of Food Science and Technology, vol.59, no.3, pp.1979-1989, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
The aim of this study was to produce high-quality dried chicken meat slices by a low-temperature vacuum drying system. Chicken meat slices were cut in 2 and 4 mm thicknesses and then dried at the temperatures of 10 and 20 °C and the pressures of 1, 0.85 and 0.70 atm. The mean moisture content, water activity (aw) and pH values of the low-temperature vacuum dried chicken slices were 41%, 0.90% and 6.23%, respectively. Depending on the temperature increase, the non-protein nitrogen (NPN) (P < 0.01) value increased from 5.49 g per 100 g to 6.13 g per 100 g, and the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) (P < 0.01) value increased from 13.33 to 17.89 μmol MDA kg−1. The colour of samples changed from a lighter and yellow to a darker and brownish as the drying temperature, pressure and thickness increased. The cutting force was higher at 2 mm thickness (18.42 N) (P < 0.01) and 0.70 atm pressure (17.12 N) (P < 0.05) conditions. The samples dried at 10 °C, 0.70 atm and 2 mm had higher microbiological quality and the highest overall acceptability score (7.57).