Browsing by Author "Intan Azura Shahdan"

Over the last 10 years, contemporary guidelines for halal meat production have emerged. However, the available guidelines emphasised mostly on slaughtering i.e., neck cutting, and lack in (i) depth analyses based on the Qur’an and the Ahadith on the events of the industrial scale halal meat production; (ii) requirements at the upstream (e.g. rearing and handling of the chicken) and downstream (e.g. scalding and evisceration) of slaughtering; and (iii) systematic approach to monitor the halal integrity of the meat during the meat processing. STUDY AIMS: The initial aim of the study is to propose a systematic approach to monitor halal poultry slaughtering. Then, taking into the consideration that pre-slaughter electrical stunning (ES) is increasingly accepted as a common step in the halal poultry meat production, several physiological and biochemical parameters were used to assess the impact of ES on both slaughtering and wholesomeness of meat. METHODS I: Control points for halal slaughtering (CPHS) in poultry meat production was proposed based on the Qur’an, the Ahadith, field surveys, laboratory experiments, and interviews with religious officers and experts in the meat industry. Control points (CP) are steps in the processing where controls can be applied to monitor the halal integrity. Each CP has its own control limits (CL), that set a boundary to distinguish halal from haram or shubhah meat or process. RESULTS I: Six CP with respective CL were proposed. In the second part of this study, the impact of ES in halal poultry meat production was investigated by (a) studying the changes of meat structure; and (b) studying the induction of swift slaughtering. METHODS II (a): Chickens were treated without ES or stunned at 30 V and 100 V, followed by neck cutting. Meat samples were chilled and preserved at various intervals during 7-day postmortem period. RESULTS II (a): ES causes cellular injury, interferes with the normal muscle contraction during pre-rigor, and possibly induces proteolysis of the muscles during meat ageing. METHODS II (b): Chickens were sacrificed with ES set at various electrical currents, and the time needed for the chickens to become insensible upon neck cutting (Td) was measured. RESULTS II (b): No correlation was found between the different currents applied during ES and Td. CONCLUSION: A CPHS programme for poultry meat slaughtering and processing was developed in this study. As part of the attempt to identify CL for ES used for halal slaughtering, the effects of ES on meat structure and Td was investigated. Whilst voltage/current was found to affect the physiology of the meat, no impact was seen on the Td. Moreover, since the effects of ES on meat physiology were observed between day 3 and 5 postmortem, which is beyond the meat production time, changes in meat structures was unsuitable as the CL for ES. Nevertheless, the findings of this study conclude that current applied during ES can indeed affect the size of the meat tissues, which suggests that meat ageing process is also affected.