Abstract
Simple SummaryThe study of meat quality of modern birds and their respective myopathies is important to understand the responses of myopathy to the meat quality of these birds. Aging enters as an alternative to avoid losses that this myopathy generates in the poultry industry, with discards of chickens affected by the different degrees of myopathy in wooden breast. The constant genetic evolution that birds have suffered and still suffer during these years is the most plausible cause of the onset of this myopathy.This study aimed to evaluate the effects of aging on the quality of breast meat from broilers affected of wooden breast. Samples that were classified as normal (control), moderate (hardness verified only in one region of breast fillet), and severe (hardness verified in all the extension of breast fillet) were evaluated fresh and after three and seven days of aging. Normal samples and samples with a moderate degree of myopathy showed greater water-holding capacity, which may benefit the processing industry of poultry meat. During the aging process, increase was observed in total collagen concentration (from 0.41% in normal samples to 0.56% in samples with severe degree). Samples of chicken breast affected by moderate degree showed higher myofibril fragmentation index (MFI = 115) than normal chicken samples (95.65). Although chicken samples affected with severe degree of wooden breast myopathy are more tender than normal chicken breasts, they produce more exudate, which can be detrimental to the processing of poultry meat. The aging process may improve the reduction of cooking weight loss and protein loss in exudation of broilers’ breasts affected by wooden breast myopathy.
Highlights
Over the past 25 years, the market for chicken meat has largely increased when compared to other animal products
Chicken meat affected by wooden breast myopathy, regardless of the severity degree, showed higher (p < 0.0001) pH than normal chicken meat (Table 1)
Wooden breast myopathy had a significant effect on the pH values of chicken breast meat, which was higher than those found in normal chicken meat [29,30]
Summary
Over the past 25 years, the market for chicken meat has largely increased when compared to other animal products. Muscle lesions called myopathies have been observed in fast-developing chicken lines, and these are only detected at the time of slaughter These obstacles to the industry, such as deep pectoral myopathy (DPM), one of the earliest myopathies reported in poultry (turkeys, chickens) with changes in color from pink to green on the pectoralis minor [2]; the appearance of white stripes at different degrees of severity [3]; and spaghetti meat that manifests itself as a loss of integrity of the muscle fiber bundles composing the breast muscle itself, which appears mushy and sparsely tight [4], have heightened the need for research on the physical, chemical, and sensory changes genetic progress can introduce into the quality of the produced meat. The fillets affected by WBM often exhibit more white stripes on their surface, gelatinous-viscous surface fluid, and petechial hemorrhagic lesions [6]
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