Effect of the wooden breast condition on shear force and texture profile analysis of raw and cooked broiler pectoralis major

Authors: Zhuang, Hong; Chatterjee, Debolina; Bowker, Brian; RINCON, ANGELA - University Of Georgia; Sanchez Brambila, Gabriela

Submitted to: International Congress of Meat Science and Technology Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/29/2016
Publication Date: 8/14/2016
Citation: Zhuang, H., Chatterjee, D., Bowker, B.C., Rincon, A.M., Sanchez Brambila, G.Y. 2016. Effect of the wooden breast condition on shear force and texture profile analysis of raw and cooked broiler pectoralis major. International Congress of Meat Science and Technology Proceedings. Short Paper ID P09-02. http://icomst-proceedings.helsinki.fi/papers/ 2016_09_02.pdf

Interpretive Summary: The wooden breast condition (WBC) is a novel chicken breast meat disorder. Raw chicken breast fillets with typical WBC are hard to the touch and appear tense. The WBC reduces meat quality and customer acceptability and results in downgraded breast meat. It is present in both Europe and the U.S. and likely affects up to 50% of a flock, causing significantly economic loss for the poultry industry. Currently, WBC boneless and skinless chicken breast fillets are sorted by their visual appearances and palpable hardness in broiler processing plants. In the present study we investigate the potential to use instrumental measurements, shear force and compression, to measure the WBC of chicken breast fillets. Our results show that both raw and cooked chicken fillets with the WBC also require more shear force to cut though and significantly harder than the normal fillets. These WBC texture properties are not affected by freezing storage. These results suggest that the instrumental measurements, either shear force or compression, can be used to predict the WBC of chicken breast meat and cooked WBC fillets may be significantly different from cooked normal fillets.

Technical Abstract: The objective was to characterize texture properties of raw and cooked broiler fillets (Pectoralis major) with the wooden breast condition (WBC) using the instrumental texture techniques of Meullenet-Owens Razor Shear (MORS) and Texture Profile Analysis (TPA). Deboned (3 h post-mortem) broiler fillets were collected from a commercial plant and categorized as normal, moderate, or severe WBC based on the incidence and severity of diffuse hardened areas and the degree of palpable hardness. The fillets were then either stored at 4C overnight or in a -20C freezer. The MORS and TPA of the raw samples were determined at 24 h post-mortem for fresh samples and after thawing overnight for frozen samples. The same measurements were also taken after the samples were cooked to 78C. Regardless of freshness (fresh vs. frozen-thawed), cooking (raw vs. cooked), and degree of WBC, both MORS force and energy of the WBC samples were higher than those of the normal samples (P < 0.05). For TPA adhesiveness and resilience, there were no differences between normal and WBC samples (P > 0.05). However, average TPA hardness and chewiness measurements of the cooked fillets with WBC were higher than the normal fillets (P < 0.05). Regardless of texture measurement, there were no interactions between freshness and the WBC or no differences between moderate and severe WBC fillets (P > 0.05). These results demonstrate that there are the WBC condition significantly affects instrumental texture properties of broiler breast fillets. The cooked WBC fillets require more force to cut through, harder, and chewier than the cooked normal breast muscles, and would likely be tougher than cooked normal meat.