Effect of vacuum tumbling and red beetroot juice incorporation on quality characteristics of marinated chicken breast and leg meats

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to assess the effect of vacuum tumbling and red beetroot juice (RBJ) incorporation on quality characteristics of marinated chicken breast and leg meat cuts.Design/methodology/approachVacuum tumbling of breast and leg meat cuts was carried for a duration of 2 h and compared with control (0 h tumbling) and traditionally marinated (6 h) meat cuts. Vacuum-tumbled treatments were also marinated using RBJ in place of water to assess the combined effect of RBJ and vacuum tumbling. All the cuts were cooked in an oven at 170°C for 40 min. Quality characteristics of fresh and refrigerated products were analysed.FindingsVacuum tumbling for 2 h resulted in a significant (p < 0.05) increase in marinade pickup, water-holding capacity (WHC), cooking yield, moisture and ash content and a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in hardness, gumminess, chewiness and shear press values in both types of meat. Breast meat treatments had significantly (p < 0.05) higher WHC, moisture, protein, cohesiveness and gumminess and significantly lower fat content, hardness and shear press values than leg meat treatments. Control breast and leg meats had marinade pickup of 9.19 and 9.31 per cent and cooking yield of 69.08 and 68.31 per cent, respectively, whereas corresponding values for treated breast and leg meats varied from 11.28 to 11.98 per cent and 73.32 to 74.94 per cent, respectively. Sensory scores declined significantly (p < 0.05) during refrigerated storage. On the 12th day of storage, control breast and leg meat cuts had acceptability scores of around 5.0, whereas all other treatments had acceptability scores between 6.0 and 7.0 on an eight-point scale, with RBJ-treated products having the highest acceptability. All the products were also microbiologically safe up to the 12th day of refrigerated storage.Originality/valueThe research is valuable to meat processors because vacuum tumbling for 2 h using RBJ as marinade can be used in place of 6 h of traditional marination for developing marinated chicken breast and leg meat products.