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Flavor and other eating qualities of chicken breasts generally are not
affected by a range of cold-storage temperatures from 40 to 0 degrees
F. This finding from a new ARS study suggests consumers consider more
than poultry's "fresh" or "frozen" label at the grocery store as a quality
indicator. Current USDA regulations require processors to maintain
chicken that is labeled as "fresh" above 0 degrees F until its delivery to
retail distributors. USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has
been reviewing the regulations in response to various concerns, including
a claim that poultry chilled below 26 degrees is hard to the touch and
thus is "frozen," not "fresh." As a result, FSIS asked ARS to conduct the
quality study. ARS scientists based their evaluation on a trained panel
of food testers and other high-tech sensing technology called
near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. The study involved 800 freshly
processed unfrozen chickens obtained from a local processor. Scientists
chilled the breast fillets to 40, 32, 26, 10 or 0 degrees F. After two
days of chilling--and again seven days later--they evaluated 17 attributes
of taste, texture and other qualities. They found no important
differences due to the various temperature regimens. Scientists currently
are evaluating the NIR data to see if it can answer a related question:
What is the temperature history of chilled poultry?
Richard B. Russell Agricultural
Research Center, Athens, GA
Brenda G. Lyon, (706) 546-3167
The dairy industry needs a more reliable method to detect residues of
certain antibiotics in cow's milk. Now it has one: an ARS-developed
method that accurately detects all six antibiotics commonly used to treat
and prevent mastitis, an infection of the udder in dairy cows. The Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) puts strict limits on the levels of these
antibiotics in milk. Two of the six--cloxacillin and ceftiofur--are
difficult to detect by commercial screening test kits. Sometimes, today's
tests err by indicating that the level of antibiotics is too high. The
key to the new method is a chemical solvent, called acetonitrile. The
scientists use the solvent to remove milk proteins from the sample.
What's left is concentrated by evaporation. They then test the
concentrated sample with a commercially available, antibiotic screening
kit, called Delvotest-P. The new method is inexpensive, so it can be used
for screening milk samples from individual cows, as well as from large
tanker trucks. The FDA provides guidelines to farmers for checking milk
samples, and requires dairy industry personnel to test tankers of milk for
the six antibiotics.
Meat Science Lab,
Beltsville, MD
Raida Harik-Khan/William Moats, (301) 504-8989
Last updated: November 15, 1996
Return to: Quarterly Report
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Last Modified: 02/11/2002
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