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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Athens, Georgia » U.S. National Poultry Research Center » Quality and Safety Assessment Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #298804
Title: Effect of postmortem aging on marination performance of broiler breast pectoralis major categorized by color lightness

Author
item Zhuang, Hong
item Bowker, Brian
item SAMUEL, DORA - Kraft Foods

Submitted to: Poultry Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/19/2014
Publication Date: 12/1/2014
Citation: Zhuang, H., Bowker, B.C., Samuel, D.D. 2014. Effect of postmortem aging on marination performance of broiler breast pectoralis major categorized by color lightness. Poultry Science. 93:3123-3129.

Interpretive Summary: Marination is widely used at home as well as in poultry industry to improve flavor, texture, and yield of finish meat products. Many factors can affect the marination results. Boneless skinless chicken breast is the most popular chicken meat product in the USA market. Their eating quality is significantly affected by postmortem aging, and marination has been used for improvement. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the postmortem aging of early deboned chicken breast meat on marination performance of finished products, including marinade uptake and retention, cook yield, and texture. Compared with unmarinated fillets, marination enhances finished product yield significantly. Marinade retention and product yield vary with raw meat color. However, with target 15% marination yield, marinade uptake and retention, cook yield, and texture of marinated boneless skinless chicken fillets did not change according to the postmortem aging regardless of raw meat color. These results suggest that marination performance, product yield, or finished product quality of early-deboned and marinated breast fillets will not be affected by postmortem aging.

Technical Abstract: The objective was to evaluate the effect of postmortem aging on marinade uptake and retention by early-deboned chicken breast fillets with different color lightness. Effects of marination on product yield and muscle shear force were also determined. Early deboned (2 h postmortem) broiler butterflies were visually selected based on their color lightness from a commercial plant. The individual butterflies were separated into left and right fillets. One of them was used for 6h marination treatment (early postmortem fillets) and the other for 24h marination treatment (aged fillets). Samples were marinated in a vacuum tumbler (-0.6 atm, 16 rpm, 20 min) with 20% w/w marinade yielding 0.75% NaCl and 0.45% phosphate based on a targeted 15% uptake. Marinade uptake and retention were determined after tumbling and following storage for 24 h after marination, respectively. Salt-induced water gain was greater in non-marinated fillets at 24 h postmortem compared to 6 h postmortem. Compared with unmarinated fillets, marination enhanced finished product yield significantly regardless of postmortem aging time and color lightness. Marinade retention and product yield were different in fillets categorized by L* values. However, there were no differences between two postmortem aging times for marinade uptake, marinade retention, overall product yield, cooking loss, final cooked product yield, or meat shear force regardless of initial fillet L* values. These results demonstrate that with a targeted 15% marinade uptake, postmortem aging of early deboned fillets prior to marination does not impact marinade uptake and retention by boneless skinless chicken breast regardless of raw meat characteristics.