No abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the parameters that influence the water absorption and drip of chicken carcasses due to the processing and pre-cooling of the meat in an industrial chiller. A total of 1,179 chickens were sampled during industrial processing to evaluate the influence of variables, validate the parameters, and conduct histological analysis. The best parameters for guaranteeing absorption levels and drip tests within acceptable limits on chicken carcasses were total residence time of 60 min (in the pre-chiller, chiller 1, and chiller 2); air pressure of chillers at 0.5 bar; the abdominal opening of carcasses at a maximum of 2 cm. These parameters did not influence the protein content, moisture/protein ratio, pH, or lipid content. The validation of the parameters and the histological analysis performed after each cooling stage showed that the most significant structural changes occurred in the pre-chiller, where the temperature of carcasses and water was higher, which contributes to greater absorption.

Cooling of carcasses using water immersion is the most used process in the poultry industry. On this stage, besides the reduction of temperature, water absorption in the carcasses occurs and, consequently, in the chicken cuts, which are monitored by the companies and supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply of Brazil, which establishes water absorption limits. The objective of this work was to evaluate the process capacity analysis tool to analyze the water absorption capacity by chicken carcasses during precooling, based on the absorption indexes obtained on an industrial scale, by the analysis of 720 carcasses. After structural alterations, aiming at greater bubble control and shorter residence time of the chicken carcasses in the cooling system, Cp (process potential index) and Cpk (process performance index) were close to each other (0.82 and 0.81, respectively), indicating that the process is practically centralized and, although it has become smaller than 1, presented a significant improvement over the initial evaluation (cp 0.35 and cpk 0.26). Practical Application:The control of water absorption in the cooling process of chicken carcasses is a great concern of the companies, because possible deviations can result in excessive absorption of water by chicken carcasses, above the limits indicated in the legislation.