Effect of 3 postmortem electrical stimulation treatments on the quality of early deboned broiler breast meat.
The present experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of electrical stimulation (ES) immediately prescalding (PS), ES immediately postdefeathering (PD), or PS combined with PD (PSPD) on the quality of early deboned (2 h) broiler breast muscles, pectoralis major (fillets), and pectoralis minor (tenders). No stimulation, early-deboned (2 h), and 24-h deboned (24 h) fillets were used for the comparison. The 42-d-old broiler carcasses were electrically stimulated with pulsed current at 200 V for 30 s over a 90-s time interval (total of 1 min over 180 s for PSPD), and breast meat was deboned 2 h postmortem. Quality indicators evaluated were CIE L*, a*, and b* color and pH of the raw fillets and cook yields and Warner-Bratzler (WB) shear force of the fillets and tenders. There were no differences in raw fillet color, pH, and cook yields of both the fillets and tenders between the 3 ES treatments. Effects of different ES treatments on meat WB shear force values varied with breast muscles. For the fillets, the average WB shear force values of both the PS and PSPD samples, which were not different from each other, were significantly lower than those of the PD samples. For the tenders, there were no differences in the average shear force values between the 3 ES treatments. Regardless of ES treatment and breast muscle, early deboned broiler breast meat from ES carcasses required significantly less force to shear than the 2-h control. These results indicate that ES can tenderize early deboned poultry breast muscles; however, the effectiveness of ES tenderization varies with ES treatments for the fillets. The PS treatment is more effective in reducing fillet shear values than PD, and there is no further reduction in shear values with PSPD compared with the PS treatment.
Zhuang
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Quality and Safety Assessment Research Unit, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Richard B. Russell Research Center, Athens, GA 30604-5677, USA. hong.zhuang@ars.usda.gov
Savage
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Lawrence
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D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D003296:Cooking; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005241:Feathers; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008460:Meat / Q000592:standards*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D014781:Viscera