How to Tell Good Broiler Chicken Meat From Bad

In broiler chicken farming, producing meat that is high in quality, healthy and fresh is the top priority. To get there, poultry farmers pay close attention to feed quality, coop hygiene and the health of their broiler flocks. After harvest, the birds are slaughtered and distributed to different regions depending on each farmer's market. So how can consumers tell whether the meat they get is high quality, healthy and fresh?

Choosing broiler chicken meat calls for a careful, sharp eye. Some dishonest sellers slip "tiren" chicken in among the fresh meat on display. Tiren is short for "mati kemarin," Indonesian for "died yesterday." These sellers do it on purpose to make a bigger profit. A tiren chicken is a bird that died before it could be slaughtered and was then sold anyway. That's a real concern, because such chicken carries a risk of dangerous diseases. Buyers should therefore be more careful and stay alert to dishonest sellers by learning the difference between fresh broiler meat and meat that isn't.

The discovery of tiren chicken alone has alarmed the public, and on top of that, chicken treated with formalin has also turned up. Dishonest sellers add formalin to the chicken they sell so it lasts longer. You can quickly spot sellers of tiren chicken and formalin-treated chicken by looking at the condition of the broiler meat. Tiren chicken can be told apart from fresh chicken by the color of the meat and skin, the smell and the blood in the meat. Here are the signs buyers can look for to distinguish tiren chicken, formalin-treated chicken and fresh chicken.

Fresh Chicken

Picking chicken that is healthy, fresh and good quality isn't hard. Healthy meat has several signs you can see with the naked eye. Fresh, healthy broiler meat is bright and yellowish white. Besides the bright meat, the skin looks clean and yellowish white. When you touch it, fresh broiler meat feels moist but not sticky. Beyond the color of the meat and skin, fresh, good-quality chicken generally has a mild smell that is not fishy or rotten.

Tiren Chicken

(chickens) Tiren chicken, the bird that "died yesterday," has telltale signs such as a slightly fishy, off smell and a look that is anything but fresh. The meat looks stale because it tends to be bluish and pale. Besides the off color, the texture of the meat isn't as smooth as normal broiler meat. Buyers can also check for another sign of tiren chicken: blood spots on the head or neck. A bird in that condition is tiren chicken and is not fit to eat.

Formalin-Treated Chicken

You can spot formalin-treated chicken right away by its smell. It tends to have a strong medicinal odor that is very different from normal fresh broiler meat. Formalin-treated chicken also tends to be paler, has a very firm texture, and looks very stiff from the thigh down to the feet. This kind of chicken won't spoil for about two days at a room temperature of 25 degrees Celsius.

Also read Broiler Chicken Farming: How to Choose Fresh Chicken