Sensory texture analysis of marinated and non-marinated wooden breast fillet portions

Authors: Zhuang, Hong; Bowker, Brian; MAXWELL, ALEXANDER - University Of Georgia; CHATTERJEE, DEBOLINA - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA); ADHIKARI, KOUSHIK - University Of Georgia

Submitted to: International Congress of Meat Science and Technology Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/22/2018
Publication Date: 8/12/2018
Citation: Zhuang, H., Bowker, B.C., Maxwell, A.C., Chatterjee, D., Adhikari, K. 2018. Sensory texture analysis of marinated and non-marinated wooden breast fillet portions. International Congress of Meat Science and Technology Proceedings. https://icomst-proceedings.helsinki.fi/index.php.

Interpretive Summary: The wooden breast (WB) condition is an emerging myopathy that occurs in the Pectoralis major muscle of broilers. Fillets with the WB myopathy often have visual quality defects, impaired technological meat quality, and altered muscle composition. In addition, many of the distinct myopathic lesions associated with the WB are often more evident on the ventral-cranial surface of the breast muscle, indicating that WB effects are not uniform throughout the breast muscle. Marination with a salt-phosphate based marinade is often used to enhance the yield and quality of poultry meat products. Although it has been reported that breast meat with the WB condition exhibits altered sensory texture characteristics, the effects of marination on the sensory attributes of breast fillets with the WB myopathy are unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate the interacting effects of the WB myopathy, marination, and fillet portion (dorsal and ventral) on the sensory texture quality of broiler breast fillets using sensory descriptive analysis. Our study demonstrates that the WB condition may directly affect sensory texture quality of cooked chicken breast meat with increased intensities of springiness, cohesiveness, hardness, fibrousness, and chewiness. The negative effects of the WB myopathy on the sensory texture attributes were more noticeable in the ventral portions of the breast fillets. Even though vacuum-tumbling marination can be used to improve the sensory attributes of WB fillets, differences in cooked texture characteristics due to the WB myopathy are still detectable in marinated broiler breast meat, predominantly in the ventral portion of the fillet.

Technical Abstract: The objective of this study was to determine the effects of marination on sensory texture attributes of the ventral (skin-side) and dorsal (bone-side) portions of normal (no WB) and severe WB meat. Normal (no WB) and severe WB butterfly fillets were selected from the deboning line of a commercial processing plant. Each fillet was portioned into ventral and dorsal halves. Portions from one side of each butterfly were used as non-marinated controls, and portions from the other side were vacuum-tumble marinated (16 rpm, -0.6 atm, 4°C, 20 min) with 20% (wt/wt) marinade to meat ratio. Marinade was formulated to target a final concentration of 0.75% (w/v) salt and 0.45% (w/v) sodium tripolyphosphate in the product. Descriptive sensory analysis (9 trained panelists) was conducted to analyze texture attributes (0-15 point scale) of breast portions. A significant interaction effect between WB and marination was not observed for the sensory attributes. Greater springiness, cohesiveness, hardness, fibrousness, and chewiness scores were observed in WB samples (P < 0.001). Marination decreased cohesiveness, hardness, and chewiness (P < 0.05) and increased juiciness (P = 0.002) in breast portions. The effects of WB on sensory texture attributes were more apparent in the ventral portions of the breast fillets. Data suggest that the WB effect on meat texture properties is not uniform throughout the Pectoralis major and that WB-related differences in cooked meat texture are lessened but not eliminated by vacuum-tumbling marination.