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Pre-chilling and chilling treatments on poultry breast meat quality

A total of 402 poultry was processed in a commercial poultry processing plant and submitted to six chilling treatments. Initially, the carcasses were chilled by immersion in water and ice, followed by cooling at -35°C or storage at 4°C for 20 hours. The treatments were: A (0°C/30min, -35°C/3h and 15min), B (10°C/30min, 0°C/30min, -35°C/2h and 45min), C (10°C/30min, -35°C/3h and 15min), D (20°C/30min, 0°C/30min, -35°C/2h and 45min), E (20°C/30min, -35°C/3h and 15min) and F (20°C/30min, 0°C/3h and 15min). Low temperatures used after evisceration, accelerated the onset and resolution of rigor in pectoralis major (PM) muscles. Up to 45 minutes post mortem, carcasses without pre-chilling (A) or pre-chilled at 10°C (B), showed lower (P<0.001) pH values of 5.75 and 5.81, while in carcasses pre-chilled at 20°C (D), the values were higher, reaching 5.95. After 4h post mortem, the R values found in treatments A and B, with averages of 1.51 and 1.44, were higher (P<0.05) than the value of 1.32 found in treatment D. The luminescence (L*) was influenced (P<0.001) by the treatments (in treatments A, B and C, the averages were 48.2, 47.7 and 47.6, while in treatments D and E, they were 45.5 and 45.7, respectively). The greater values for lightness coincided with treatments causing rapid rigor development in the PM muscle. The cooking loss and shear value were not affected by the treatments.

chicken; chilling; pectoralis major


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