The study was conducted to determine the effect of various cooking methods-grilling, deep frying, pan frying and roasting on quality attributes of Muscovy drake meat. A total of one hundred and eighty (180) Muscovy drakes fillets weighing between 118-130 g were used in a completely randomized design. Cooked samples were analyzed for proximate composition and physical characteristics. Organoleptic characteristics were evaluated using a nine-point hedonic scale. Deep fried meat samples had the highest (P<0.05) cooking loss (52.37%), while pan and deep fried meat samples had the highest shear force values of 4.10 and 3.91 kg/cm 3 , respectively in comparison to values of 2.68 and 2.64 kg/cm 3 for roasted and grilled samples. The water holding capacity (WHC) of the meat was not affected significantly (P>0.05). The moisture content varied from 71.64% in the raw meat to 35.57% in deep fried fillets. Protein and ash content increased across the treatments after cooking. Pan fried (13.95%) and roasted duck fillets (13.92%) had higher fat than the raw sample (12.92%). Except for colour, other organoleptic parameters were not affected significantly. The use of deep frying method should be minimized since it resulted into meat with the least nutrient composition.

No abstract

No abstract

Sixteen (16) grasscutters (Thryonomys swinderianus) used for this study had been fed, in groups of four, one of four treatment diets namely; 2000, 2200, 2400, and 2600 kcalME/kg respectively. Two grasscutters were randomly selected from each treatment group for slaughter. Equal weights (150g) of meat samples collected from the forelimbs and hindlimbs of each slaughtered grasscutter were mixed, packed in waterproof plastic bags and stored overnight at -2℃. The chemical composition and emulsifying characteristics of the meat samples were determined. It was found that the chemical composition and emulsifying characteristics (including protein content, emulsifying capacity, water holding capacity, emulsion stability and cooking loss) of grasscutter meat from varying dietary energy levels were significantly (P<0.05) different. These findings indicate that the protein content and emulsifying characteristics were significantly higher for meat from grasscutters fed the 2000 kcalME/kg diet than for meat from grasscutters fed the higher dietary energy levels.

The study was designed to evaluate the proximate composition and nutritional potential of orange waste meals in rabbits' diet. The orange wastes (endocarp, mesocarp and whole) meals were gathered from fruit juice processing factory at Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Calabar Municipality, sundried and milled. Based on the crude protein content, four experimental diets were formulated; Diet one contained wheat offal, serving as control, while Diets 2 to 4 had wheat offal in the control diet replaced by the orange endocarp, mesocarp and the whole orange waste meal, respectively. Forty rabbits of mixed sexes, used for the experiment were weighed and randomly distributed into four 4 groups of Ten rabbits each. Each group was randomly assigned to one of the four (4) experimental diets and fed for 10 weeks. The result showed that the inclusion of orange wastes meal in rabbits diets significantly (P < 0.05) improved the average daily weight gain with the highest (13.99 g/day) in group fed diet 4, average daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio and cost per kg weight gain. Cost of producing a kg of feed and cost of feed consumed by rabbits were significantly reduced. The orange waste meal did not significantly influenced the carcass and internal organs of the animals. It was concluded that, the orange wastes meal could replace wheat offal in growing rabbits' diet.