ARS | Publication request: EFFECTS OF POST-PICKING ELECTRICAL STIMULATION AND POLYPHOSPHATE MARINATION ON TEXTURAL AND COLOR PROPERTIES OF CHICKEN BREAST MEAT

Submitted to: Food Technologists Institute
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: March 12, 2004
Publication Date: July 12, 2004
Citation: Young, L.L., Smith, D.P., Cason Jr, J.A., Jones, D.R. 2004. Effects of post-picking electrical stimulation and polyphosphate marination on textural and color properties of chicken breast meat. [abstract] Institute of Food Technologists. Paper No.496-16.

Technical Abstract: Concomitant use of two technologies used to improve meat quality, post-picking electrical stimulation (ES) to hasten depletion of muscle ATP and sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) marination to improve moisture binding, reportedly can yield unpredictable and undesirable results. It is important to understand how these technologies interact in order to avoid such undesirable results. The objective of this study was to evaluate effects of post-picking electrical stimulation and polyphosphate marination on pH, color and texture of marinated early-harvested broiler breast meat. Sixty-four broiler chickens were slaughtered conventionally. Immediately after picking, half the carcasses were electrically stimulated 90 s and half held for 90 s but unstimulated. After evisceration, Pectoralis major muscles were excised. Half the muscles from each group were marinated in NaCl and the other half in NaCl plus STPP. All samples were cooked. Meat pH changes during marination; raw, marinated and cooked C.I.E. color values; and cooked-meat shear values were observed. Meat pH was unaffected by marination in NaCl solution alone, but increased if the marinade contained STPP (-0.03 v.+0.12 units). ES depressed pH compared to no stimulation (+ 0.05 v. ' 0.13 units). Stimulation-by-marinade interaction was statistically significant (P < 0.05) only for shear values. STPP significantly increased shear values in non-stimulated muscles (15.4 v. 12.9 kg), but not stimulated muscles (overall mean 4.6 kg). Stimulated raw muscles had greater lightness (L*) values (49.6 v. 48.2), but the trend reversed during marination regardless of marinade composition (46.8 v. 48.2). These results indicate that electrical stimulation and STPP generally function independently, the only exception being the slight toughening effect of STPP on unstimulated muscle, and that effect is ameliorated with ES. These results are in contrast to previous reports involving ES prior to picking in which STPP-marination of unstimulated produced much greater toughening effects.