The design of fingerprint method based on pattern recognition algorithms for rapid determination of protein quality differences in commercial brand chicken meats

In addition to being an important source of animal protein in human nutrition, chicken meat contains essential amino acids, inorganic substances and vitamins. With the aid of decreased time for raising the animals and enhanced efficiency of animal feeding, there has been an increase in chicken meat production in recent years to meet the changing consumption habits of the consumer. However, to meet the consumers' request and achieve the desired quality can only be possible by considering the molecular factors affecting the quality of the meat. Nowadays, the interest in fast, reliable, and environmental-friendly technologies is increasing in the analysis of meat products, and accordingly, different technologies are aimed to be developed as alternatives to the traditional methods which are user-dependent, time-consuming, and expensive. In this thesis, Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) was used for the quantitative and qualitative analysis of proteins, essential aminoacids, triglyceride/other lipids, nucleic acids along with the secondary structure of proteins. With this approach, the quality assessment factors of chicken meat are aimed to achieve with a fast, non-destructive and most importantly cost-effective molecular fingerprint method to improve product standards, increase the quality and reduce the production cost of the chicken meat production industry, and add value for the national economy.