Nutritional Quality and Safety of Chicken Meat Consumed in Ota, Ogun State

Background: Imported chicken meat is smuggled into the country through the porous borders of Idiroko road which leads into Ota, Ogun State, and sold to retailers in the open market. This study was carried out to assess and compare the nutritional composition and safety profile of the imported frozen, exotic commercial and indigenous chicken meats consumed in Ota metropolis. Materials and Methods: A total of 21 chicken meat samples were used for the analyses. Group 1, 2 and 3 comprise of seven samples each of imported, poultry and local chicken meat respectively. The samples were digested and nutritional composition assessed by determination of proximate composition and essential elemental analysis. The safety profile was determined by quantification of levels of heavy metals (cadmium, lead and chromium), malondialdehyde and lipid profile of the chicken meats. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 15.0. The level of significance was set at p <0.05. Result: The proximate composition revealed significantly higher (p<0.05) levels of food nutrients in groups 2 and 3compared to group 1. Similarly, the elemental analysis showed that groups 2 and 3 had significantly higher (p<0.05) levels of the elements and their concentration is within permissible limits compared to group 1 with significantly higher levels (p<0.05) of heavy metals such as lead, chromium and cadmium. Furthermore, the lipid profile analysis revealed significant increase (p<0.05) in levels of Low-Density Lipo-protein-Cholesterol (LDL-C), triglyceride and total cholesterol in the group 1 samples while group 3 has significantly higher levels (p<0.05) of High-Density Lipoprotein-Cholesterol (HDL-C). Malondialdehyde levels were also significantly higher in the group 1 samples compared to groups 2 and 3.