Effect of frozen storage of goat meat on quality parameters stored in the form of chunk and mince in two packaging materials

Meat of non-descript type old female goat of more than two years age and meat of young castrated male goat of around 9 months age were procured, chilled to 4 +/- 1 degrees C for 24 hrs and then frozen stored at -10 +/- 1 degrees C in the form of chunks and mince, packaged in low density polythene (LDPE) -300 g (gauge) and high density polythene (HDPE) -200 g for 0, 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks. Samples of meat were evaluated for pH, water holding capacity (WHC), salt soluble protein (SSP), water soluble protein (WSP), non protein nitrogen (NPN), thiobarbituric acid value (TBA) and microbiological load in terms of aerobic plate count (APC). Overall there was significant (P<0.01) rise in pH as the storage period progressed. There was nonsignificant (P<0.01) difference between treatments. The average WHC increased significantly (P<0.01) upto 8 weeks (32.87%) and then started decreasing and was lowest at 16 weeks (24.14%). There was significant decrease (P<0.01) in WSP as the storage period increased from 0 week to 16 weeks. The average WSP of old female goat meat kept as chunk in LDPE and mince in HDPE increased significantly (P<0.01) with respect to young male goat meat (kept as chunk in LDPE and mince in HDPE). There was significant (P<0.01) reduction in SSP as the storage period progressed but there was non-significant decrease between 4 weeks and 8 weeks. SSP was 8.53% at 0 week and 4.58 at 16 weeks. The average TBA-values increased significantly (P<0.01) at each storage interval. The value increased from 0.28 (at 0 week) to 0.65 (at 16 weeks) mg of malonaldehyde/kg of meat. Mince kept in HDPE of old female goat had significantly (P<0.01) higher TBA value than other treatments. There was significant (P<0.01) reduction (5.65 log(10) cfu/g at 0 week and 5.26 log(10) cfu/g at 16 weeks) at each storage interval in APC as the storage period increased.