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SUMMARY
Poultry is now the most consumed meat, in terms of volume. A main factor for the continuous increase of poultry production is the huge development of cut pieces and processed products. The nutritional quality of such products is quite variable. For example, the protein and lipid contents of chicken nuggets are between 9.8 and 31.0% and 7.5 and 25.0%, respectively. Different ingredients, such as vitamin E, thyme or rosemary essential oils can be used during processing to increase the shelf life of products by decreasing oxidation susceptibility and/or limiting microbial contamination. For example, adding 0.2% thyme essential oil caused a 40% decrease in TBARS value (an indicator of lipid peroxidation) in chicken nuggets stored at −20°C for six months and a 41.0% decrease in the number of Staphylococcus aureus in sausages fermented for 28 days. To answer consumer and/or public authorities’ requests, recipes for processed products can be modified to decrease, for example, their fat or salt (sodium chloride) contents. The quality of processed products mainly depends on technological processes, and preservation and cooking conditions. For instance, high cooking temperatures during frying or roasting can induce the formation of undesirable compounds which are harmful for consumers. Finally, poultry meat has high protein content and low lipid and saturated fatty acid levels. Its nutritional characteristics are, therefore, rather favourable for the health of consumers, but for the most processed products (nuggets, cordons bleus, kebabs) the industry has completely modified these characteristics to make food rich in carbohydrates, lipids and salt, which are not desirable.
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Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.