Effect of dietary phosphorus levels on meat quality and lipid metabolism in broiler chickens

•Meat quality and enzyme activities were determined in chickens.•Dietary P levels influenced meat quality and expression of indicators on lipid metabolism of broilers.•Meat quality of broiler chickens is decreased compared to normal group.•Provide useful information for improvement of the meat quality. To analyze the influence of dietary phosphorus (P) levels on meat quality and lipid metabolism, a 42-day feeding experiment (P deficient group; normal group; high P level groups of H1 and H2, respectively) using 100 one-day-old broilers was conducted. Results demonstrated that the quality of broiler chicken meat in deficient or high P groups decreased relative to the normal group. High P diets resulted in increased lightness, redness values, shear forces and decreased fatty acid contents and intramuscular fat content in breast meat (p