Maejo Int. J. Sci. Technol.

2012, 6(0x), 1-x (manuscripts)

Maejo International
Journal of Science and Technology
ISSN 1905-7873
Available online at www.mijst.mju.ac.th
Full Paper

Formulation of spice-rich chicken satay and effect of storage

on sensory qualities and chemical changes
Roungdao Klinjapo 1*, Pornpong Suthirak 2, Rusiru Karunaratne 1 and Sunisa
Siripongvutikorn 3

1
Department of Food Technology, Faculty of Biotechnology, Assumption University, Bangkok,
Thailand
2
Department of Food Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Industrial Technology, Prince of Songkla
University (Surat Thani Campus), Surat Thani, Thailand
3
Department of Food Technology, Faculty of Agro-Industry, Prince of Songkla University, Hat
Yai, Songkhla, Thailand
* Corresponding author: roungdaomng@au.edu

Received: / Accepted: / Published:

Abstract: Satay is one of marination techniques used satay curry powder as flavor
enhancement to provide the uniqueness flavor and taste of products. Three basic formula
of satay curry powder were formulated by adding salt and sugar together with garlic or
the combination of garlic and galangal. Chicken breast meats were sliced into 0.5 cm-
thick, and marinated with mixed curry powder for 2 h, grilled at 200°C for 20 min and
subjected to sensory evaluation. The best from three basic formulas consisted of 77.22 %
sliced chicken meat, 11.58 % satay curry powder, 1.16 % salt, 1.54 % sugar, 3.86 %
garlic, and 4.63 % water. Chitosan was also added at 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 % (w/w) into the
selected formula. All chitosan concentrations showed no significantly differences effect
on the sensory evaluation. Chitosan 0.5 % (w/w) was investigated the consumer
acceptance and the results showed 100% acceptance with the mean score at 7.17 from 9.
Chemical compositions of spice-rich chicken satay composed of protein, fat,
carbohydrate and ash content as 30.5, 4.4, 1.8, and 1.2 % respectively, while the moisture
content was 62.1 %. For the 7-days storage in airtight package at 4 ºC, color, overall
taste, and overall liking scores increased, while aroma, texture and total appearance
decreased. After taste scores were stable for storage time of 7 days (p ≤ 0.05).
Thiobarbituric acid (TBA) values increased gradually during storage while pH was stable
at 6.0. Therefore, the suitable storage period for spice-rich chicken satay with 0.5%
chitosan is not longer than 1 week in the refrigerator.
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Keywords: Spice, Marination, Chitosan, Chicken Satay, Curry Powder

INTRODUCTION

Marinating is one of the traditional processes of soaking meat with a solution, called
marinades, containing ingredients such as sugar, acids (from vinegar, lemon juice, wine), soy sauce,
brine, oils, salts, tenderizers, herbs, spices, antimicrobial agents (sorbate and/or benzoate), and
aroma enhancers [1–4]. Marinating is used to improve tenderness, juiciness, flavor and aroma [1,
2] and to extend shelf life of meat, poultry, seafood and vegetables [1–3]. Marinating is especially
used for poultry products. It has been estimated by the finish meat processing industry that about
80% of poultry sold at the retail level is marinated. These products are variable containing skinned
meat strips, fillets, and breast fillet cuts. [5].
Marketing of marinated poultry products has become one of the fastest growing segments of
the food industry around the world [6]. Industrial marination is becoming increasingly popular and
about 80% of the poultry products, such as skinned meats, fillets, skin-on breast fillets and leg cuts
sold at retail level are marinated in Finland [5]. Satay is a dish of Southeast Asia, especially
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, consisting of strips of marinated meat, poultry, or seafood
skewered, barbecued and usually served with a peanut dipping sauce. Marinating sauce of satay
contain different combinations of herbs and spices forming very potent blends with very distinct
flavors and are very popular in everyday cuisine and diets. There is a big selection of different
flavors, including curry, Indonesian-style, Malysian-style, or Thai-style. The amount of marinade
added on meat is variable among product types, 20–30% (wt/wt) being quite typical for meat strips
[5, 7].
As spices are excellent sources of antioxidants, it is expected that satay’s marinating sauces
should be excellent sources of antioxidants, since their main ingredients are derived from herbs and
spices. Currently, there is little information available about the antioxidant status of many of these
common herb- and spice-based marinating sauces, and what effect, if any, marinating and cooking
have on their antioxidant status [7]. As the marination is the method used to shelf life of meat and
poultry, fat content in those materials, even those with less than 1% lipids, is affected by
degradation reactions, mainly chemical oxidation causing the development of lipid oxidation and
finally rancid smell [8, 9].
Chitosan is a modified, natural biopolymer derived by deacetylation of chitin, a major
component of the shells of crustacean. Recently, chitosan has received increasing of attention for
its commercial applications in the medical, pharmaceutical, food, and chemical industries. Use of
chitosan in food industry is readily seen due to its several distinctive biological activities and
functional properties. The antimicrobial activity of chitosan against different groups of
microorganisms makes it a potential source of food preservative or coating material of natural
origin. There are many applications of chitosan for improvement of quality and shelf life of various
foods from agriculture, poultry, and seafood origin [10, 11]. Chitosan has been approved as
functional food in some Asian countries (Japan, Korea) during the last decade. Other properties of
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chitosan such as analgesic, antitumor, hemostatic, hypocholesterolemic, antimicrobian, and

antioxidant properties have also been reported [12].
Consequently, the objectives of this study research were formulation the spice-rich chicken
satay with the combination of chitosan and study the effect of storage on sensory qualities and
chemical changes of spice-rich chicken satay. This information is needed to provide a better
understanding of the contributions of culinary herbs and spices to the antioxidant intake in the diet
of chicken satay.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Formulate the spice-rich chicken satay

Three basic formulas of satay mixture (mix curry powder and extra spice) came from the
preliminary experiments were used. Raw materials consist of chicken breast, WAUGH’s curry
powder, garlic, galangal, salt, and sugar. Chicken breast meats were sliced into 0.5 cm-thick, and
marinated with other ingredients following the formulas as shown in table 1 and then kept in the
freezer. After 2 hours of matination, raw spice-rich chicken satay was thawed before grilled at
200ºC for 20 mins. Sensory evaluation was conducted to select the most preferred formula in
which the color, texture, aroma, spiciness, taste, after taste and overall liking was tested by a 9-point
hedonic scale.

Table 1: Components of three formulas

Ingredients Formula 1 Formula 2 Formula 3
Sliced chicken breast (g) 500 500 500
Satay curry powder (g) 100 75 75
Salt (g) 7.5 7.5 7.5
Sugar (g) 10 10 10
Ground garlic (g) – 25 25
Ground galangal (g) – – 25
Water (ml) 30 30 30

Study the effect of chitosan on sensory qualities

The best formula of spice-rich chicken satay from the previous experiment was prepared.
Chitosan was added with various concentrations as 0.5, 1, and 1.5 % (w/w). Sensory evaluation
was conducted to select the most preferred formula using 9-point hedonic scale. The selected
formula was investigated the consumer acceptance by 115 panelists and proximate analysis.

Study the effect of storage time on the chemical and sensory quality

Spice-rich chicken satay was prepared and kept in refrigerator. Samples were withdrawn on
alternative days for 1 week. Portion of the sample was grilled to inspect the change of total
appearance, texture, color and flavor throughout the shelf life. The TBA value and pH was
measured in the uncooked samples. Uncooked samples were measured pH by using digital pH
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meter (HANNA) and determined Thiobarbituric acid (TBA, mg malonaldehyde/kg) by Tarladgis,

Watts, Younathan, and Dugan (1960) [13].

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

According to the three basic formulas of satay (as shown in table 1), the first formula was
control, formula two contained 3.86 % garlic and formula three contained 3.72 % of garlic and
galangal each. Water was added to get the coating uniformity of mixed curry powder on sliced
chicken breast. Raw chicken satay was grilled at 200 oC for 20 minutes to achieve the internal
temperature of 74oC which is the FDA recommended internal temperature for poultry products.

Table 2: Sensory evaluation results for three formulas of chicken satay

Attribute Formula 1 Formula 2 Formula 3
Color 7.0 ± 1.0a 7.2 ± 0.8a 7.0 ± 0.7a
Texture 7.2 ± 0.6a 7.3 ± 0.6a 7.2 ± 0.4a
Aroma 6.7 ± 1.0b 7.1 ± 0.8b 6.0 ± 1.1a
Spiciness 7.4 ± 1.1a 7.5 ± 0.9a 7.3 ± 1.2a
Taste 7.2 ± 1.0a 7.7 ± 1.0b 7.0 ± 0.8a
After taste 6.8 ± 0.8b 7.0 ± 0.8b 5. 8 ± 0.8a
Overall liking 6.9 ± 0.8b 7.7 ± 0.9c 5.9 ± 0.7a

Table 3: Malonaldehyde content of each chicken satay formula

Formula Malanoldehyde content (10-12 mol/ml)
1 0.3a
2 7.8c
3 1.1b

In table 2, the results of sensory evaluation showed that there is no significant difference in
color, texture and spiciness among all formulas. In terms of aroma, panellists gave poor reviews for
the formula 3 according to the predominant galangal flavor. Overall liking, however, all scores
were significantly different from each other giving the second formula as the most preferred
formula for spice-rich chicken stay out of the three formulas.
Moreover, as the results from table 3, formula 2 showed significantly higher MDA content
than other two formulas. There was a 7 fold increase in the value of formula 2 compared to formula
3. From antioxidant activity standpoint, garlic and galangal showed the antioxidant activity, but the
consumer more preferred the addition of garlic in chicken satay than garlic-galangal as the higher
score of sensory evaluation. Thus, the second formula which enriched chicken satay with garlic
was selected for further step.

Effect of chitosan addition to the sensory qualities of spice-rich chicken satay

Garlic-rich chicken satay was prepared with the addition of chitosan at 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 %
(w/w). As shown in table 4, there were no significant differences in color, texture, aroma, spiciness,
overall taste, after taste and overall liking scores in the addition of 0.5, 1.o and 1.5 % chitosan in
garlic-rich chicken satay compared to the control (at 0 % Chitosan). In fact, all 4 formulas received
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very similar scores on all tested parameters at 95% confidence level. Therefore, the 0.5% chitosan
was selected for further steps as it would be the most preferred concentration in marketing
perspective taking production costs in to consideration. This was backed by a chemical test as the
highest anti-oxidative action was shown in the second formula with 0.5 % chitosan.

Table 4: Sensory evaluation results for the four formulas with varying chitosan
Chitosan content (%)
Attribute
0 0.5 1.0 1.5
Color 7.3 ± 1.0a a a
7.0 ±0.8 7.3 ± 0.8 7.4 ± 0.5a
Texture 7.2 ± 0.6a 6.9 ±0.7a 6.9 ± 0.9a 6.9 ± 0.7a
Aroma 6.7 ± 1.1 a
7.0 ±1.2a 6.4 ± 1.4a 6.9 ± 1.3a
Spiciness 5.8 ± 1.6a 6.2 ±1.6a 5.9 ± 1.4a 5.9 ± 1.3a
Taste 5.8 ± 1.6a 6.1 ±1.4a 6.0 ± 1.0a 6.2 ± 1.2a
After taste 6.0 ± 1.2 a
6.2 ±1.2a 6.4 ± 1.2a 6.2 ± 1.2a
Overall liking 6.2 ± 1.4a 6.1 ±1.2a 6.3 ± 1.2a 6.6 ± 1.1a

Consumer acceptance of garlic-rich chicken satay with 0.5 % chitosan

Garlic-rich chicken satay with 0.5 % chitosan was tested upon 115 consumers. Out of the
115 consumers, 109 of the consumers (94.8 %) consumed chicken, while 77.3 % of the consumers
stated that they consumed pork and 51.3 % consumed beef. When asked about how often they
consume chicken, 46 % answered 2 to 6 times per week. 29 % consumes chicken products on daily
basis. Out of the 115 consumers, 23 % of consumers consume once a week. If a week is
considered 98% of the consumer base consumes chicken products at least once per day.
The 70 % consumers preferred spicy poultry products to non-spicy poultry products. Only
19 % of the tested consumers preferred to buy raw chicken and cook it by themselves. According
to the consumers the supermarkets and street venders are the most popular purchasing locations for
ready to eat meat products. Most of the consumers in this study (97 %) are aged between 18 and 24
and are students. This showed that the spice-rich chicken satay has a higher chance of success in
the market. At retail prices for one serving size of the product (140 g) will cost 18 Baht.

Proximate analysis of garlic-rich chicken satay with 0.5 % chitosan addition

The amount of protein, fat, ash, water, and carbohydrate were analyzed and calculated. As
the results shown in table 5, the garlic-rich chicken satay with 0.5 % chitosan contained crude
protein 30.5 %, crude fat 4.4 %, total carbohydrates 1.8 %, ash 1.2 %, and water 62.1 %.

Study the effect of storage time on the chemical and sensory quality

Garlic-rich chicken satay with 0.5 % chitosan was prepared to study the changes of both
chemical and sensory quality during storage in for one week. Samples were withdrawn from the
refrigerator at the beginning, 1st, 3rd, and 6th day for sensory evaluation using 9-point hedonic scale
and to investigate the change of oxidation reaction using TBA method.
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7.6
7.4
7.2
7
Color
Rating score

6.8
Texture
6.6
Aroma
6.4 Total Appearance
6.2 Overall taste
6 After taste
5.8 Overall liking
5.6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Day

Figure 1: Sensory scores of garlic-rich chicken satay with 0.5 % chitosan addition (attributes: color,
texture, aroma, total appearance, taste, after taste, and overall liking) during storage in refrigerator
for one week

As shown in figure 1, color, overall taste and overall liking seems to be increasing
throughout storage time but only overall liking is statistically significant. Color and overall taste
non-significantly increases mostly due to the fact that more time is available for the marination
process and more marinade can be absorbed. Texture ratings showed a significant decrease during
storage. Aroma and total appearance show a statistically non-significant decrease in scores.
However the after taste scores does not show a clear decrease or increase.

0.8

f(x) = 0.0884000000000002 x + 0.0701999999999998

0.6 R² = 0.814582130607533
TBA value

0.4

0.2

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Day

Figure 2: The changes of TBA value in garlic-rich chicken satay with 0.5 % chitosan addition
during storage in refrigerator for one week

The slightly decreasing of aroma showed the relationship with the development of oxidation
during storage. Slightly increasing of TBA values during storage (figure 2) implied that the
development of lipid oxidation affected on the change of aroma in the product. After one week, the
TBA value was 0.72. It has been proposed that a maximum TBA value is 5 mg malonaldehyde/kg.
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Assuming chicken also has similar maximum TBA value as the edible quality limit, after 7 days the
spicy chicken satay is not safe for human consumption.
The pH value is another factor used to investigate the chemical change and implied to a
chance of microbiological change. The garlic-rich chicken satay with 5 % chitosan had low pH in
the range of 5.95 to 6.05 hinders the microbial growth. An acidic pH of 4.6 or less is considered the
acidity level that will inhibit the growth and formation of toxins from the bacteria that cause
botulism. In this study, it seems to have a much higher pH and is more favourable for microbial
growth. As the results, garlic-rich chicken satay with 5 % chitosan addition is the neutral food and
need to be cooked before consume. The product was enriched by the garlic content and could not
keep it too long time according to the pH and water content is available for the growth of
microorganism during storage in the refrigerator. Even the product contains garlic which is known
that it contains high antioxidant and antimicrobial substances, the oxidation reaction occurred
during storage causing the change of aroma in the final product. Thus, the product should be kept
in refrigerator not longer than 1 week because the neutral pH and refrigerator temperature cannot
inhibit the microbial growth. Moreover, the lipid oxidation will occur and cause the aroma change
according to the racid flavor.

CONCLUSION

The best formula of garlic-rich chicken satay with 5% chitosan addition consists of 11.6 %
curry powder, 1.2 % salt, 1.5 % sugar, 3.9 % garlic, 4.6 % water and 0.5% chitosan. Final product
contains 30.49% protein, 4.35% fat, 1.82% carbohydrates with 0.5% chitosan and 62.13% moisture
content.
During storage, color, overall taste and overall liking scores increased. Only overall liking
showed a significant increase. After taste scores were statistically stable at 95% confidence level.
Aroma, texture and total appearance showed a decrease in scores during storage time of seven days
but only texture ratings showed a significant decrease. Suitable storage period for garlic-rich
chicken satay with 5% chitosan addition was not longer than 1 week in the refrigerator according to
the neutral pH and the development of lipid oxidation causing rancid flavor development.

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© 2012 by Maejo University, San Sai, Chiang Mai, 50290 Thailand. Reproduction is permitted for
noncommercial purposes.