title: Characteristics of cold-induced dark, firm, dry broiler chicken breast meat.
abstract: 1. A study was designed to characterise dark, firm, dry (DFD) breast meat resulting from cold exposure of broilers and compare its properties with normal breast meat from cold-stressed and control birds. 2. A total of 140 broilers were selected from 5- and 6-week-old birds exposed to cold temperatures ranging from -18 to -4°C, or a control temperature of +20°C for 3 h in an environmental chamber. Half of these birds were slaughtered immediately following the cold exposure and the other half were given 2 h of lairage. 3. Breast meat samples were categorised based on ultimate pH (pH(u)) and colour L* (lightness) values into normal (5·7 ≤ pH(u)≤ 6·1; 46 ≤ L* ≤ 53) breast meat from control (control-normal) or cold-stressed (cold-normal) birds, and DFD (pH(u) > 6·1; L* < 46) breast meat, which only occurred in cold-stressed birds (cold-DFD). 4. Residual glycogen was not different between cold-DFD and control-normal breast meat. Lactate concentration was lower in cold-DFD compared with control-normal breast meat. Lactate concentration almost tripled for all the samples by 30 h post-mortem, which resulted in a drop in pH of normal meat, but did not have any effect on pH of DFD breast meat. Glycolytic potential at both 5 min and 30 h post-mortem was lower in DFD breast meat compared with the normal breast meat from both cold-stressed and control birds. 5. Cold-DFD breast meat was significantly darker, with higher pH(u), lower cook loss, higher water-binding capacity and processing cook yield than cold-normal and control-normal breast meat, which were not different from each other.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food and Bioproduct Sciences, College of Agriculture and Bioresources, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, S7N 5A8. samira.dadgar@usask.ca
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dadgar
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: T G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Crowe
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Classen
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Shand
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens / Q000502:physiology*; D003080:Cold Temperature; D058639:Cold-Shock Response; D005260:Female; D006799:Housing, Animal; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat / Q000592:standards*; D010369:Pectoralis Muscles / Q000502:physiology*; D011897:Random Allocation