Food safety and shelf-life are both important microbial concerns in relation to broiler meat production. Focus is mainly placed on the absence or control of potentially pathogenic microbes such as Salmonella and Campylobacter but, from commercial point of view, other spoilage bacteria also play a role. Regarding food safety, the primary target should be the production of pathogen-free live animals, thereby allowing slaughter plants to keep the processing line free of those micro-organisms. Pathogen-free feed is fundamental in obtaining such conditions, as is the Good Hygienic Practice in farming, including grand parent stock (GPS), parent stock (PS) and hatcheries.

Interventions in the slaughter plant cannot always completely remove pathogens. However there are some measures of control available, including separation of flocks, carcass decontamination and implementing a balanced and operational HACCP system.

Shelf-life is closely linked to food safety during processing. The developments towards in-line processing, including chilling, portioning and deboning, allows optimal control. It minimizes processing time and product to product contact, and thus increases shelf-life and limits cross contamination. Refrigeration conditions are very important and an interruption of the refrigeration chain can accelerate microbial growth. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) may contribute in controlling the undesired growth of spoilage organisms, and can play a role in food safety as well.

The consumer needs to be educated in how to deal with food of animal origin that cannot be produced in an entirely sterile environment, in order to ensure shelf-life and correct preparation and use.

If proteins are the functional units of almost all biological processes, the proteome represents the set of proteins expressed in a cell at a given time and for given conditions. Because muscle is mainly composed of water and proteins, it seems evident that proteome analysis can give much information on structures and functions of proteins involved in several mechanisms which determine meat quality. This paper aims to present the most classical techniques (i.e. sample preparation and protein solubilisation, protein separation by 2-DE or SDS-Page, protein detection and quantification, computer analysis of 2DE-pattern and finally protein identification) that are currently applied to analyse the proteome.

Proteomic study related to meat quality are somewhat limited, especially in poultry, but some results are presented to illustrate how proteomic approaches can bring a new point of view on new or already known meat quality problems. It is the case in mammals where meat tenderness had been given a new highlight with proteomic study but also in turkeys where new hypothesis for explaining PSE meat syndrome can be developed from proteomic analysis. Some studies have also reported interesting results in muscle growth and development in chickens.

Meat quality is a complex problem which includes several factors of variation such as genetics, handling of animals during production, transportation and slaughter and also the handling of meat during product processing. Proteomic tools can give a new point of view on these problems and help the biologist to understand and finally resolve it.

Lipid oxidation leads to meat spoilage and has been reported to cause adverse changes in the flavour and texture of poultry meat. Vitamin E has been found to be effective in delaying lipid oxidation. The aim of this study was to determine whether the vitamin E supplementation of chicken feed influences the consumers' perception of the quality of chicken meat under normal display and storage conditions. Untrained consumers (n 32) evaluated cooked breast meat from chickens (both corn fed and wheat fed) supplemented with 75 250 or 500 mg/kg vitamin E and after storage at 4°C for 4 and 7 d. Factorial analysis found an interaction between vitamin E treatment and storage day upon the perceived juiciness (P=0·023) and tenderness (P=0·041) of the chicken meat. Perceptions of quality relative to vitamin E level were more evident on day 4 than day 7. When the two cereal types were compared, the time-related sub-group effects were observed only in meat from corn-fed chickens supplemented with either 75 or 250 mg/kg, which was perceived to be juicier (P=0·018) and more tender (P=0·020) than that supplemented at the 500 mg/kg level. These results imply that the two lower concentrations of vitamin E have some advantages over 500 mg/kg, but for optimal consumer acceptance of corn-fed chicken meat, we suggest that 250 mg/kg vitamin E should be added to corn-fed poultry feed. There was no evidence to suggest any advantages in changing the current amount of vitamin E (75 mg/kg) used to rear wheat-fed birds.