Sensory Evaluation of Meat of Broiler Poultry Birds Fed with Tomato-supplemented Feed

Tomato is often used as a convenient feed alternative because of its high protein, mineral and vitamin content and also because of its relative low cost. With a steady increase in the demand for poultry products in Nigeria due to increase in population, urbanization, export drive and improved standard of living, it is important that serious attention with regard to the quality of chicken meat available to the Nigeria population be paid. The higher demand for poultry meat has necessitated the need for higher production, and with tomato as a more financially viable alternative in feedstuff for chickens with no adverse effect, there is need to test the general acceptability of broiler chicken meat produced through the replacement in diets of tomato as feed ingredients. This study aims to assess the effect of the use of alternate feeding material (tomato) on the sensory attribute of poultry meat. The experiment was carried out in Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo Ogun State, Nigeria using nine (9) different varieties of tomatoes: dried and blended together to make dried tomato powder. One hundred and fifty (150) broiler chickens were allocated into five (5) feeding groups of 30 birds each. Tomato powder was used as a replacement for premix in the following variations Diet A (40%tomato, 60% premix), Diet B (60% tomato, 40% premix), Diet C (80% tomato, 20% premix) and Diet D (100% tomato, 0% premix). There were significant (p>0.05) differences in colour, texture, taste and odour of broiler meat.The overall acceptability showed significant (p<0.05) differences, with diet C having the highest value which might be attributed to the lycopene and other bioactive components in the tomato powder. Findings revealed that the texture of the meat was the most significantly affected followed by taste and colour, indicating that tomato as alternate feedstuff material may produce more palatable poultry meat with increased texture, richer colour and improved taste