Slaughtering is a process of bringing an animal to a quick painless death. It involves throat cutting for maximum blood drainage and the amount of blood retained is dependent on the method of slaughter. This study investigated the effect of slaughtering method (Halal and Chinese methods) on meat quality indicators and shelf life of broiler chicken breast meat. Quality indicators such as pH, drip loss and colour (L*, a*, b*) were significantly (P˂0.05) higher for birds slaughtered with the Chinese method (pH= 6.17, L*= 56.42, a*= 8.36, b*= 19.2, drip loss= 0.58) than the halal method. There were no differences in cook loss, thaw loss and toughness obtained from both slaughtering methods. Iron (Fe) content for birds slaughtered using Chinese method was 13.77 mg/kg which was significantly higher than those slaughtered using the halal method (10.00 mg/kg). The haem iron content were 2.55 and 3.25 mg/100g sample respectively for birds slaughtered using both halal and Chinese methods and this decreased during storage at 40C for 9 days. Higher microbial count after 9 days of refrigerated storage (6.28 cfu/g) were recorded for birds slaughtered using Chinese method as compared with the halal method (5.05 cfu/g). Results from this study indicate that method of slaughter for poultry significantly affects the quality and shelf life of meat produced. Keywords -broiler chicken, quality indicators, chemical changes, microbiological quality, slaughtering methods.

Animal slaughtering is the most vital step in the preparation of chicken meat. The step ensures the meat is safe for human consumption since the procedure of animal slaughtering can affect the meat quality. In this study, we compare the quality of chicken meats obtained via two common slaughtering procedures: neck slaughtering (NS) and neck pocking (NP). The meat quality was assessed based on physicochemical analyses (ultimate pH, colour, heme iron content, drip and thaw loss measurements and TBARS value) and metabolite profiling (FTIR, GC–MS and UHPLC with PCA and PLS-DA). The study found that, relative to the NP-, the NS-chicken meat had slightly acidic pH, and much lower values of the following parameters: L* (lightness) (P = 0.023), heme iron content (P < 0) and TBARS (P < 0.01). Comparing FTIR spectra, the metabolite fingerprints of both meats looked slightly different. This was confirmed to be due to a set of differential metabolites present in the NS and the NP-chicken meats, as recorded by GC–MS and UHPLC-TOF-MS data after analyzing with PCA and PLS-DA. Compared to the NP, the NS-chicken meat was rich in metabolites with health benefits, including n-3-polyunstaurated fatty acids (PUFA), triglyceride (TG), cytadine and uridine. In addition, the NS-chicken meat also contained much lower concentrations of free amino acids. This is desirable as free amino acid-deficiency is able to suppress the production of biogenic compounds, a group of chemicals that produce toxicological effects on human heath when taken excessively.