Signs of Fresh Chicken Meat from a High-Quality Broiler Farm
Learn the signs of fresh chicken at the market: a clean smell, bright meat, glossy skin, blood that rinses off easily and other checks before buying.
Broiler chicken farms are multiplying across Indonesia because of the huge daily demand for chicken meat. Chicken is one of Indonesians' favorite sources of protein because it tastes great and is fairly easy to cook in all kinds of dishes. This rising demand is why the broiler farming business keeps growing and spreading.
More broiler farms mean more chicken on the market. So how can you tell whether the chicken sold at the market is fresh and fit to eat? If you know what to look for, judging the freshness of broiler chicken at the market is actually not hard.
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You can judge the quality and freshness of broiler chicken by its smell, meat color and skin color. When it comes to smell, fresh, good broiler chicken that is fit to eat has the natural fresh scent of chicken, without a strong odor that leans fishy, rotten or even chemical. A chemical smell is often like the smell of medicine, which most likely means the chicken has been injected with chemicals to make it look fresh and fit to eat. Do not eat chicken that smells of chemicals, because it can harm your health. Beyond smell, healthy, fresh, high-quality broiler chicken has bright or yellowish-white meat, not a pale white. If you find chicken that is dark, too red or bluish, you can be sure the broiler meat is no longer fresh and its quality is questionable. Besides the meat color, you can also check the skin color. Fresh, high-quality broiler chicken that is fit to eat has bright, glossy and clean yellowish-white skin.
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The color of the meat and skin is one of the easiest ways to judge the freshness and quality of broiler chicken sold at the market. If you are still not convinced after checking the meat and skin color, you can look at the blood on the chicken. Fresh broiler chicken may have some blood on the meat, but it washes off right away. Chicken that is less fresh or no longer fresh has blood that sticks to the skin and meat and does not wash off easily. You can try this trick before buying by asking the seller for a little water. A good seller will be happy to show buyers that the broiler chicken they sell is fresh, high-quality farm meat.
Besides the indicators described above, you can also use your eyes and check whether flies are landing on the chicken at the market. Fresh broiler chicken usually attracts flies. If flies show no interest in the chicken, you have reason to doubt its freshness, because flies avoid broiler chicken that contains chemicals or formalin.
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