Effect of Chilling Method and Deboning Time on Broiler Breast Fillet Quality

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine the effects of chilling method and postmortem aging time on broiler breast fillet quality. One hundred fifty eviscerated broiler carcasses were removed from a commercial processing line before chilling and transported to the laboratory. Half of the carcasses were chilled by dry air, whereas the other half were chilled by water immersion. Immersion-chilled (IC) carcasses were divided into 3 groups (0, 1.67, and 24 h) based on postchill fillet aging time on the carcass. Air-chilled (AC) carcasses were divided into 2 groups based on fillet aging time (0 and 24 h postchill). Because AC requires more time to reach the same temperature, fillets removed immediately after chilling (0 h) were the same postmortem age as the 1.67 h IC fillets. Average pH values of IC and AC fillets were similar when fillets were aged for the same length of time postmortem. Method of chilling had no effect on raw breast fillet color; however, postmortem aging time had a slight but significant effect on fillet lightness. Shear values of IC fillets removed 0 and 1.67 h after chilling were similar and corresponded to sensory panel categories of slightly tough to tough (>8 kg/g). Shear values of AC fillets deboned at 0 h (8.4 kg/g) were slightly lower but not significantly different than the shear values for IC fillets (10.3 kg/g) aged for the same length of time (1.67 h). After 24 h of aging, shear values for IC and AC fillets were <8 kg/g and corresponded to sensory panel categories of tender to very tender. Cook yield (%) of AC fillets was significantly higher than cook yield (%) of IC fillets for all deboning times. Results show that air chilling has an accelerating effect on rigor mortis onset, but postchill aging time is required to maximize the proportion of tender meat.

Effect of dry-air chilling on sensory descriptive profiles of cooked broiler breast meat deboned four hours after the initiation of chilling

“…There were no differences in color and pH between AC and IC samples. These results are consistent with reported observations of the changes in pH (decreased) and lightness (increased) of chicken breast fillets with aging time (Lyon et al, 1985;Young et al, 1999;Cavitt et al, 2005) and also agree with previous studies that showed no significant differences between AC and IC for pH, L*, a*, and b* values of raw breast fillets deboned at the same postmortem time (Fleming et al, 1991;Huezo et al, 2007b). Table 3 shows ANOVA and average intensity scores for 12 texture and 9 flavor sensory attributes of the cooked breast meat, fillets, and tenders.…”

“…Therefore, it is impossible to conclude if AC has any advantage over IC on improvement of texture quality of chicken breast meat based on these results. In 2007, Huezo et al (2007b) made the side-by-side comparison of the effects of AC and IC methods on broiler breast fillet quality. However, in their experiments, sensory quality of treated fillets was not measured and the fillets were deboned at either 2.5 or 24 h after the initiation of chilling.…”

“…Bauermeister et al (2001) found that the average Allo-Kramer shear value of 2-h deboned, air-chilled fillets was 7.40 kg/g compared with 10.15 kg/g of a retail immersion-chilled product. Huezo et al (2007b) reported that the shear value of air-chilled fillets deboned 0 h postchill (about 2.5 h postmortem) was nearly 2 kg/g lower than immersion-chilled fillets deboned 1.67 h postchill (about 2.5 h postmortem). In quality surveys of boneless, skinless chicken breast obtained from local retail markets without knowing the processing practice details, Zhuang et al (2007) and Lee et al (2008) both noticed that, overall, air-chilled products seemed consistently more tender than the no-additive, immersionchilled products.…”

Hızlı ve Yavaş Gelişen Etlik Piliçlerde Canlı Ağırlığın Karkas ve Karkas Kısım Verimleri ve Bazı Et Kalite Özelliklerine Olan Etkisi

“…But Huezo et al [15] determined that L*, a*and b* values as 61.4, 1.5 and 1.0 for broiler carcass were removed from a commercial slaughter house after 24 h storage. The results obtained herein deal with skin color showed that a* values were lower at SG according to FG (P<0.05).…”

“…In addition, it is observed that darker broiler meat is associated with lower muscle ultimate pH (pHU or pH24); pHU is measured at 24 h after killing. It has been demonstrated that there is a high correlation between breast muscle ultimate pH and L* value [11,[14][15][16][17][18] . As pH increases, the L* value decreases; a high-pH of muscles, therefore, has darker color than those of low-pH.…”