Effect of processing technology on the quality and composition of lipids of precooked chicken patties

The effect of processing technology on the quality and composition of lipids of raw meat and precooked ready-to-eat fried chicken patties, was studied. Chicken cutlets were obtained by two processing technologies, which mainly differed by the order of the applied thermal treatments (flash-frying and humid steam-convection oven cooking). In the traditional technology, samples were flash-fried and then subjected to oven-cooking, whereas these two processing phases were inverted for the innovative one. Lipid hydrolysis (total fatty acids, free fatty acids, diacylglycerols, free cholesterol) and oxidation (peroxide value (POV) and cholesterol oxidation products (COPs)) were evaluated in the raw meat, pre-final and final products. Lipid hydrolysis was significantly more intense in the final products obtained by the innovative technology, whereas no significant differences were found in the oxidation parameters between the products obtained by the two processing lines.