Quality and Shelf Life of Boiled and Unboiled Palmyrah (Borassus flabellifer) Shoot Flour Incorporated Chicken Meatballs During Refrigerated (4±1°C) Storage

Plant-based non-meat ingredients have been studied for decades and recently gained more attraction in the food industry and research communities. The current study was conducted to produce chicken meatballs incorporating boiled-dried (Plukodiyal) and dried Palmyrah (Odiyal) flour with a focus on reducing manufacturing costs. Chicken meatballs were prepared with two flours as binders at the levels of 5% and 10% (w/w). Different treatment samples were stored at 4±1 °C for five days until further analysis. Sensory properties, proximate composition, physical properties such as processing yield, diameter changes, cooking loss, colour, and microbial properties such as total viable plate count, total yeasts and mould count and total coliform count of meatballs were determined. Five formulations (Control, T1- 5% Odiyal, T2 -10% Odiyal, T3- 5% Plukodiyal, 10% Plukodiyal) were produced and subjected to sensory evaluation to obtain the optimum product in terms of aroma, taste, texture, juiciness, and overall acceptability. From the sensory evaluation, the treatments T2 (10% of Palmyrah unboiled flour) and T4 (10% of Palmyrah boiled flour) were found to be significantly (P< 0.05) superior in terms of taste and overall acceptability. From the physicochemical analysis, T2 was found to be significantly superior (P< 0.05) in terms of taste, colour, fat content (3.96±0.03%), crude fibre content (2.16±0.06%), diameter reduction (3.27±0.03%), and cost of production for ingredients based (LKR.109.36). The results of the present study suggest that Palmyrah has excellent prospects for the formulation of chicken meatballs as a viable alternative to wheat flour. Incorporating Palmyrah flours was positively associated with processing yield, moisture retention, diameter reduction, sensory properties, and nutrients such as high crude protein and low fat. Under aerobic refrigerated (4±1 °C) storage, Palmyrah flour incorporated meatballs retained their microbiological quality for up to three days. Thus, Palmyrah flour, a valuable ingredient often ignored, can be recommended as a viable binding agent for chicken meatballs.