Backgrounds and Objectives:

 Chicken-based fried meat products are one of the most widely consumed ready-to-eat food products. Considering the importance of sensory and textural characteristics of these products in their acceptance by the consumers and effects of hydrocolloids on these characteristics, the overall purpose of this study was to investigate effects of methylcellulose and carrageenan on textural, physicochemical and sensory characteristics of chicken nuggets.

In the present study, factorial design in a completely randomized design with three levels of methylcellulose (0, 0.1 and 0.5%) and six levels of carrageenan (0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.25 and 1.5%) with three replicates were carried out. In this study, physicochemical characteristics, exudate water assessment, microbiological characteristics, covering levels of the coating, textural characteristics, colorimetry, sensory evaluation and analysis of textural characteristics of the chicken nuggets were carried out.

Results of the study showed that addition of appropriate levels of carrageenan and methylcellulose increased the moisture and decreased quantities of fat in chicken nuggets. Treatment 18 (0.5% of methylcellulose and 1.5% of carrageenan), which included the highest moisture and the lowest fat content, was assessed as the highest score treatment. Reasonable correlations were detected between the sensory evaluation and texture analysis data.

Results showed that using appropriate levels of carrageenan and methylcellulose could produce more desirable chicken nuggets in terms of textural characteristics and juiciness.