Evaluation of Coconut Water and Coconut Milk as Ice Flake Substitute in Chicken Nuggets

Coconut products have a great role to play in the fast developing functional food sector. In this pretext, a study was carried out using tender coconut water (TCW), ripened coconut water (RCW) and coconut milk (CM) as ice flake substitute in meat emulsion. Increasing concentrations of each of this substituent, 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% was used to replace ice flakes in chicken nuggets formulation and the quality parameters were studied. Among the three treatments, the results were nearly identical for TCW and RCW, while CM addition showed most satisfactory results. In nuggets with TCW and RCW, a significant (P<0.05) decrease was observed in moisture and pH, while a significant increase was observed in ash content and standard plate count (SPC). A slight increase in crude protein, fat and shear force was also observed with addition of TCW and RCW. There was no statistical significance in sensory parameters except for flavour in RCW added chicken nuggets. CM added nuggets showed a statistically significant (P<0.05) increase in sensory scores and 100% substitution of ice flakes with CM showed highest sensory scores except for juiciness. In CM incorporated nuggets, moisture content and pH value decreased significantly (P<0.05) where as ash and CP content increased significantly (P<0.05). Moreover higher level of CM addition resulted in higher binding ability of meat emulsion. The microbiological analysis showed a non significant increase. The results showed that among three ice flakes substitutes studied, CM was found more effective in enhancing the quality of chicken nuggets.