Free Amino Acid Content of Chicken Muscle from Broilers and Hens

Abstract

SUMMARY Free amino acid analyses were conducted on 24 muscle tissue samples of chicken, both young and old, fresh and aged, in an attempt to show some properties or constituents of the meat which might he related to quality factors, such as tenderness. In general, ammonia nitrogen remained fairly constant throughout the study. Storage resulted in increases in free amino acids, with proline being a major exception. Light meat showed less free amino acids than dark meat, with major exceptions being lysine and histidine. In most cases, broilers had more free amino acids than hens. Taurine concentration was much higher in the dark meat of both broilers and hens. No relation was found between tenderness and the general pattern of free amino acid concentration or between tenderness and the concentration of any single free amino acid.

Free Amino Acids in Broiler Chicken Meat in Relation to Initial pH

“…In general, these data agree with the findings of Miller et al (1965) for light meat of broilers and those of Peterson et al (1963) for the meat of hens. In general, these data agree with the findings of Miller et al (1965) for light meat of broilers and those of Peterson et al (1963) for the meat of hens.…”

Mechanism Involved in the Improvement of Meat Taste during Postmortem Aging.

“…NISHIMURA Miller et al (1965) also demonstrated that Ser, Ala, Glu, Leu and Gly in chicken breast muscle significantly increase during aging at 2'C for 7 days after death. Changes in free amino acids during the storage of beef, pork and chicken at 4'C for 8, 5 and 2 days, respectively, are examined (Nishimura et al, 1988b).…”

Chemical and organoleptic changes in poultry meat resulting from the growth of psychrophylic spoilage bacteria at 1° C

“…Miller et al (1965), for example, found very high concentrations of lysine and histidine, particularly in the light (breast) meat of broiler chickens, which was reported as containing 16-2 and 11-5 /tmol/g of these two acids, respectively twenty and fifty times the concentrations found in the present work. Our own values for threonine in leg meat may be too high because of the presence of glutamine (the glutamine-asparagine peak interferes with that of threonine).…”

“…An outstanding difference between the two tissues was the presence in leg muscle of 14-7 /xmol/g of taurine, representing 40 per cent of the total free amino acids and nearly twenty times as much as was present in breast muscle. Miller, Dawson and Bauer (1965) noted a similar difference between the dark (leg) and light (breast) meat of broiler chickens. Excluding taurine, free amino acids were still nearly twice as high in leg (21-4 /tmol/g) as in breast (II-I /xmol/g), the excess being spread fairly evenly over most of the major component acids (Table 2).…”

“…The total effects of the micro-organisms, however, were surprisingly small. The results of Miller et al (1965), though partly obscured by interference of peptides with the analysis (see p. 209), also show that most of the amino acids present in the light and dark meat of broiler chickens increased in quantity during storage for 7 d at 2 0 C, presumably mainly as the result of autolysis.…”