Chicken bone calcium extraction and its application as a food fortificant

Thai Recommended Daily Intake (Thai RDI) for calcium is 800 mg/day. Milk is a good source of calcium, but the majority of the Thai people do not drink milk due to lactose maldigestion and intolerance. is a good source of calcium. Chicken bones are inexpensive (about 3 baht/kg) by-products of mechanical deboning machines used in slaughter plants. Such bones could be useful as a calcium supplement to the human diet if they are treated to be easily chewed and digested. Chicken bones from a slaughter plant were evaluated for chemical composition and suitability for development as a calcium concentrate by alkaline treatment method. The bone after extraction was called Bone Extract Powder (BEP). The calcium content of chicken bone from a slaughter plant was about 5.5 g Ca/100 g. BEP from alkaline treatment method contained 31 percent Ca. The Ca:P ratio of BEP was close to 2:1. It was analyzed for food safety (microorganisms and heavy metals) and tested for its application as fortification in a popular food product for the Thai people. The product was fried shrimp chips (Kaow Kriab Kung). The product was fortified with three levels of calcium (10, 20 and 30 percent of Thai RDI/serving) and evaluated for sensory characteristics. The results of all characteristics in the sensory tests showed no significant difference (p0.05) among different levels of fortified products and the control (unfortified product). At the calcium fortification of 30 percent Thai RDI/serving, the amount of calcium in the product was close to the calcium content of a cup of milk (240 mg Ca) and thus could be termed a high calcium product. The cost of BEP was 0.10 baht/240 mg Ca based on a small scale production of 5 kg of chicken bones.