*Article* **Dietary Supplementation of Some Antioxidants as Attenuators of Heat Stress on Chicken Meat Characteristics**

**Mihaela Saracila 1,2,\*, Tatiana Dumitra Panaite 1, Silvia Mironeasa 3 and Arabela Elena Untea 1**


**Abstract:** The study evaluated the effect of dietary chromium and vitamin C, Zinc, and sorrel wood powder supplements on chicken health and the nutritional, textural, and sensorial quality of chicken meat. A total of 120 Cobb 500 chickens (heat stress, 32 ◦C) were assigned into four treatments: control diet (C) and three test diets including 200 μg/kg diet chromium picolinate and supplemented with: 0.25 g vitamin C(VC)/kg diet (E1), 0.025 g Zn/kg diet (E2), and 10 g creeping wood sorrel powder (CWS)/kg diet (E3). Crude protein concentration increased in the breast meat from the E3 group; crude fat decreased in E1 and E3 compared to those fed the C diet. Dietary combinations of CrPic with VC, Zn, and CWS increased redness and decreased the luminosity parameter of breast meat compared with the C group. Dietary combinations of CrPic with VC and CWS lowered the hardness of breast meat. Significant positive correlation was found between hardness–gumminess (r = 0.891), gumminess–cohesiveness (r = 0.771), cohesiveness–resilience-EE (r = 0.861; r = 0.585), ash-L\* (r = 0.426), and a negative one between ash–a\* (r = 0.446). In conclusion, a dietary combination of CrPic with VC, Zn, and CWS as antioxidant sources could have a beneficial effect on quality without affecting sensory attributes.

**Keywords:** meat; antioxidants; chicken; sensory; texture; heat stress

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