Current meat quality challenges for the poultry industry – a review

Poultry meat consumption has increased substantially over the last decades and the lifestyle changes have also dramatically modified the way, in which poultry meat is marketed and consumed. Therefore food technologies have become part of the poultry industry and today much of the production is marketed in the form of cut-up and processed products. The global success of chicken meat is made possible by its affordability, nutritional and sensory properties, ease of preparation as well as the absence of religious restraints. Poultry meat consumption is expected to further increase in the near future. However, in addition to well-known issues such as microbiological hazards associated with poultry meat consumption, welfare problems as indirect effects of artificial selection for high growth-rate, negative consumer attitudes towards intensive production systems, also increased consumers’ perception of undifferentiated products and progressive loss of nutritional biodiversity of the meat should be not overlooked.