Processing and Products - Meat Quality and Student Competition

s of papers 17 Processing and Products Meat Quality and Student Competition 66 Variation in broiler breast meat tenderness due to sample location. R. K. Gundelly*, R. Xiong, J-F.C. Meullenet, and C. M. Owens, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR. Researchers and industry personnel often use instrumental methods to measure poultry meat tenderness. Although a variety of methods are used, typically no more than two samples are taken per fillet to obtain an average shear value to represent an entire for fillet and/or the individual broiler. There is limited information available on the variation of tenderness within and between broiler breast fillets. A new shear method was developed using a razor blade (8mm), and with this method, it is possible to make multiple measurements in order to obtain a more representative average of shear value. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the effects of location within and between fillets on tenderness. Broilers (n=120) with uniform body weights were commercially processed in 3 replications, chilled and aged on ice until time of deboning. At either 3 or 6h postmortem (PM), breast fillets were deboned and aged on ice in plastic bags until cooking. All fillets were cooked and sheared using the razor blade shear method. Fillets (right and left sides) were sheared 8 times at predetermined locations, and maximum force (MF) and total energy (TE) values were obtained. At 3 h PM, significant variation in tenderness was observed within broiler fillets, but no significant differences were observed when comparing locations between fillets. At 6h PM, the variation within the left fillet decreased, but variation still existed in the right fillets. Slight differences in MF and TE between fillets at certain, but not all locations were observed. The differences in trends between 3 and 6h PM samples may be due to the aging process in the muscle. These data suggest that variation within fillets is more prominent early postmortem while variation between fillets is not a significant concern. However future studies are needed to determine variation within and between fillets deboned at various times postmortem.