the effect of olive leaf extract on physicochemical, microbial and shelf-life characteristics of chicken nuggets

The primary objective of this study was to examine the effects of olive leaf extracts on the quality characteristics and shelf-life of chicken nuggets .chicken nuggets were treated with aqueous and ethanolic extract of olive leaves (at levels: 0.25 and 0.35%) and the results were compared with chicken nuggets without additives. the treatments were stored in the freezer for 6 months and on days 0, 45, 90, 135 and 180, physicochemical characteristics and microbial samples were checked . addition of ethanolic extract to nugget formulation increases the ph during storage, the ph values of all tests gradually increased. by increasing the concentration of olive leaf extract in the samples, the moisture content and cooking efficiency increased significantly. during storage, moisture content and cooking efficiency of nugget samples decreased. by adding olive leaf extracts to the nuggets, the color indices were improved. microbial tests revealed that the number of salmonella and coliforms in all samples was negative. the addition of aqueous and ethanol extracts of olive leaves to the nugget formulation reduced the microbial load, so that the bacterial count of the samples containing the extracts was essentially lower than the control. by increasing the extract levels in the samples, the microbial load was decreased. sensory evaluation showed that the lowest sensory score was related to the sample containing 0.35% ethanol extract, but there was no noteworthy distinction between other tests. it can be concluded that olive leaf extricate can be utilized as a normal preservative in chicken nugget formulation