Occurrence and Characterization of Pale, Soft, Exudative-Like Broiler Muscle Commercially Produced in China

Abstract

Pale, soft, exudative-like (PSE-like) broiler muscle is a growing problem for meat industry all over the world. However, limited studies have been made to assess broiler meat quality in China. The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics and incidence of PSE-like broiler muscle commercially produced in China. A total of 1 274 Pectoralis muscles of Arbor Acre broiler were randomly obtained from the processing line to determine the commercial incidence of PSE-like muscle based on color. Furthermore, broiler Pectoralis muscles selected from the 1 274 muscle samples were classified as PSE-like muscle (L*>53, n=33) and normal muscle (L*>48 and L*=53, n=33) to assess meat quality. It was determined that PSE-like muscle had lower muscle pH values, lower water-holding capacity (WHC), lower sarcoplasmic protein solubility, and lower total protein solubility than the normal muscle did. SDS-PAGE profile also showed that bands of approximate 96 and 24 kDa in sarcoplasmic protein and myofibrillar protein varied between these two groups, suggesting partial denaturation of sarcoplasmic proteins and precipitation on myofillarments. Correlation analysis showed that L* values have significant correlation with WHC and protein solubility. Furthermore, the distribution of L* values exhibited a normal curve with range varying from 42.70 to 58.37. It was considered that approximately 23.39% of the population was PSE-like muscle. These results suggest that PSE-like meat can represent a significant portion of commercially processed broiler breast meat in China and that the L* value measurement could be used to sort broiler meat quality using a cut-off point.