Effect of dietary astaxanthin rich yeast, Phaffia rhodozyma, on meat quality of broiler chickens

We evaluated effects of dietary supplementation with astaxanthin (Ax)-rich yeast, Phaffia rhodozyma (Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous), on broiler chicken meat quality. Fourteen-day-old female Ross broilers were divided into three groups: control group, Ax-free diet; Ax 10 group, 10 mg/kg Ax diet; and Ax 20 group, 20 mg/kg Ax diet for 28 days. At 42 days old, chickens were slaughtered, and then growth performance, meat quality and sensory attributes were analyzed. Compared with the control, a* values increased significantly after slaughter and 48 h postmortem for Ax 20 samples (P < 0.05) and for b* values in Ax 20 and Ax 10 groups (P < 0.05). Cooking loss decreased in the Ax 20 group (P < 0.05). After 120 h aging, contents of several free amino acids and total free amino acid content of Ax 20 group were significantly higher than the control (P < 0.05). In sensory evaluation, meat texture attributes improved significantly in the Ax 20 group (P < 0.01). No significant changes occurred in flavor attribute scores of meat soup from the Ax 20 group compared with the control even though most assessors preferred meat soup from the Ax 20 group. Overall, Ax-rich yeast in the diet improves broiler chicken meat quality.