Influence of supplemental L-arginine on physico-chemical and sensory properties of breast meat from turkeys

Abstract

A total of one hundred and forty four grower (56-84d) turkeys were used to investigate the effect of dietary supplemental L-arginine on growth response, physico-chemical and sensory properties of the resultant breast meat. Dietary treatments consisted of basal diet supplemented with 0 (control), 0.05 and 0.10% L-arginine, respectively. A completely randomized design was used with turkeys randomly allotted to 18 pens; each pen housed eight birds. Six pens were assigned to each treatment. Growth performance of the birds, cook loss, refrigeration loss, freeze loss and water absorptive power of the breast meat were measured. Finisher turkeys fed diet supplemented with 0.05 % L-arginine and control group had reduced (P < 0.05) feed intake and improved (P < 0.05) feed conversion ratio. Meat samples from turkeys fed diet supplemented with L-arginine showed increased (P<0.05) cook loss weight (in g) and percentage cook loss when compared with control group. Turkeys fed diet supplemented with 0.10% arginine had the highest (P<0.01) percentage refrigeration loss, freeze loss weight (g) and percentage freeze loss. Increasing supplementation level of arginine showed a linear reduction (P<0.001) in the thaw weight of breast meat. Sensory parameters of meat sample were not influenced (P>0.05) by varying level of arginine supplemented. In conclusion, arginine supplementation seems to weaken the muscular cross-bridges in breast meat and hence resulted in higher cook loss, refrigerated loss and freeze loss.