CHICKENS FED ON TALLOW FOR TESTS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29652, 24 October 1961, Page 17

CHICKENS FED ON TALLOW FOR TESTS

“The Press” Special Service

WELLINGTON, Oct. 23. One thousand chickens tested recently by the Fats Research Laboratory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research proved they were not “chicken hearted” when faced with significant quantities of inedible tallow jn their diet. They gobbled it up and waxed fat more quickly than birds on the standard foods. Whether the broilers also tasted better has yet to be decided by a panel of tasters. The experiments, carried out with the Department of Agriculture’s poultry demonstration plant at Upper Hutt, were under the supervision of a senior biochemist, Dr. A. R. Johnson, of the Fats Research Laboratory, and Mr J. Edmondson, of the poultry demonstration plant. Dr. Johnson said that a lot of inedible tallows were being included in animal concentrate diets overseas. Fat, which was a high energy producing material, could replace some of the wheat normally eaten. Advantages were its lower cost and its capacity for cutting down on the dust normally found in animal diets.

One disadvantage was that low-grade tallows were likely to go rancid more quickly. For this reason anti-oxidants had to be added to make the tallow more stable. Inedible tallow was normally used to make chemicals, soap and grease. In the Upper Hutt experiments, which began about six months ago, 5 per cent, of added fat was included in the diet. In the first series of experiments, which took the chickens up to the age of 26 days, it was found that the birds’ weights increased by about 15 per cent. - The anti-oxidants added to the tallow had no ill-effects.

In the second group of tests. about 100 chickens received the tallow diet until they reached the ideal broiler stage of 12 weeks. Fifty-six were then killed and issued to 14- families, who were asked to complete a questionnaire on the chickens’ palatability. Each family received two chickens. One had been fed on the tallow and the other

■had not. Each family was asked to comment on the eye appeal of the chickens and then cook them both together. The questionnaire recommended that an oven temperature of 450 degrees be maintained for the first 15 minutes, followed by 25 minutes at 400 degrees. They were then required to comment on the palatability, hot and cold, of the birds and state which they preferred. The questionnaires, which are coming slowly back to the laboratory, will ultimately be analysed by the statistician for the Department of Agriculture, Miss J. Miller.