Water content and cholesterol dynamics in various chicken meat cuts influenced by thermal processing methods: A...

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the water content and cholesterol levels in fresh and processed chicken meat from four major cities in Indonesia using various cooking methods. Materials and Methods: Four major Indonesian cities (Medan, Bandung, Surabaya, and Makassar) were the sites of a purposeful sampling of four different parts of chicken meat: whole, breast, thigh, and wing. Meat was analyzed fresh and processed (boiled, fried, steamed, baked, and grilled). Saponification and toluene extraction procedures were used, and the amount of water was determined by oven-drying at 100-105°C. To determine total cholesterol levels, gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) methods were used. The study employed a completely randomized design, ANOVA, and Duncan's test, and SPSS version 26 software was used to perform statistical analysis at a 95% confidence level. Results: Water content and cholesterol levels of chicken meat were significantly influenced by body parts and processing methods. Fresh chicken had the highest water content, while frying caused the greatest moisture loss. Processed chicken, especially fried and baked whole and wing meat, showed higher cholesterol levels than fresh samples. Processing methods had a greater effect than differences among cities, as confirmed by ANOVA. Conclusions: The highest water content was observed in fresh chicken breasts. In fresh samples, the thigh had the highest cholesterol content, whereas the whole part had the lowest. Among the processing methods, frying resulted in the greatest reduction in water content and the highest increase in cholesterol levels. Boiling was the most effective method for minimizing cholesterol increases. Although some differences in cholesterol levels were observed between cities, the processing method had a more pronounced effect than the geographic origin.