This collection features six peer-reviewed reviews on optimising key quality attributes in poultry products. The first chapter considers recent research on enhancing the nutritional quality of poultry meat, focussing primarily on increasing the meat's polyunsaturated fat content. The second chapter describes different mechanisms and chemical compounds responsible for poultry meat flavour and off-flavour development. The chapter also reviews how these compounds can be manipulated to enhance flavour. The third chapter provides a comprehensive overview of 20 years' worth of research on understanding the genetics and genomics of meat quality traits in poultry species. The fourth chapter reviews the main factors affecting poultry meat colour and includes a case study to demonstrate how packaging can influence poultry meat colour and lipid oxidation. The fifth chapter addresses the role and influence of egg appearance and colour on consumer preferences and purchasing decisions, focussing on the shell, albumen and yolk. The final chapter reviews the use of molecular breeding techniques to improve internal and external egg quality, including whole-genome methods, such as genome-wide association studies and genomic selection.

Recent years have seen a rise in the number of consumers wishing to know more about the journey their food takes from farm to fork. Consumer expectations of the sensory and nutritional qualities of food products have increased as a result. Poultry producers and processors must balance these quality parameters with other requirements such as yield and animal welfare. Improving poultry meat quality addresses the wealth of recent research on the genetic and environmental factors affecting the development of quality traits in poultry meat and their potential implications for breeding, husbandry and postharvest processing. This collection also reviews recent advances in understanding colour, texture and flavour development in poultry meat. A particular focus is coverage of key poultry myopathies associated with modern broiler production such as white striping, wooden breast and pale soft exudative meat. The book considers their causes, impacts on meat quality and how these defects can be prevented or overcome.