The XIV European Poultry Conference, held in Valencia on 24th-28th June 2024, is by far the most important scientific meeting of the poultry sector in Europe. Highlighting the latest developments in poultry science, this conference which help the poultry and egg production sector to improve their production systems and sustainability, as well as the welfare of the animals on the farm.

A couple of posters was presented by PhD students working at the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences of University of Bologna during this Conference as part of the results obtained within INTAQT project. The overall aim was to assess the relationships between main farming systems used in Italy to produce poultry and the resulting quality of the meat: the first poster was presented by Mara Gagliano focuses on the effects on technological properties such as pHu, colour, water holding capacity, and texture, while the second one presented by Emilia Antenucci deals with lipid and protein oxidation.

In Italy, chicken meat is mainly harvested by birds slaughtered at three target weights (light, medium, and heavy-size) obtained by different farming systems (conventional, free-range, and organic) using either fast or medium-growing genotypes.

The light birds are usually females reared up to 1.5 to 1.7 kg of live weight (32 to 35 d old) to yield 1.0- to 1.2-kg carcasses for rotisserie-type products; medium birds are usually females (but might also be males) reared up to 2.3 to 2.5 kg of live weight (40 to 45 d old) to produce 1.5- to 1.6-kg carcasses mainly used for cut-up products. Finally, heavy birds are male broilers reared up to 3.4 to 3.6 kg of live weight (48 to 52 d old) to yield 2.5- to 2.6-kg carcasses for the production of cut-up and further processed products.

From the conducted analyses, it was evident that birds farmed under conventional farming systems exhibited significantly higher ultimate pH values compared to free-range and organic chickens. Additionally, the lower ability to retain its own water observed in light birds was evidenced by the remarkably higher liquid losses during refrigerated storage and cooking.

The market category significantly affected the colour parameters and oxidation level of both lipids and proteins in breast and thigh meat. Indeed, breast and thigh meat obtained from light birds were redder and more prone to both lipid and protein oxidation.

Finally, these studies highlighted how chicken breast and thigh meat from different market categories have distinctive features that could be effectively exploited for product differentiation, considering consumers’ perceptions and expectations correlated with the different farming systems.