Water absorption and dripping of chicken breast and carcasses during pre-cooling in an industrial system

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.

Influence of Operational Conditions of Scalding in the Quality of Broiler Carcasses in Industrial Scale

“…The main challenges of the food industry are obtaining a trade-off between product price versus safety, quality, variety, and demand. To address these challenges, industry professionals are required to focus on each major area where a product is processed, stored and distributed (Lorenzetti et al, 2015(Lorenzetti et al, , 2018Carthy et al, 2018).…”

“…The temperature and time of scalding should be adjusted according to the broiler characteristics. The use of high temperature (61-63°C) in the scalding can remove the outer epidermal layer of the skin and are more susceptible to the discoloration, while soft temperature (50-54°C) does not remove the cuticle and the skin color are more yellow (Bowker, Zhuang and Buhr, 2014;Lorenzetti et al, 2018). In addition, for an effective scalding and product quality the broiler weight and processing line speed are important factors to be evaluated and adjusted for feathers removal by plucking equipment (Bowker and Zhuang, 2013;Barbut 2015).…”