Tenderizing spent fowl meat with calcium chloride. 3. Biochemical characteristics of tenderized breast meat

Abstract

Biochemical characteristics of spent fowl meat injected with calcium chloride or sodium chloride were evaluated. Hot-boned breast fillets were injected to 10% (wt/wt) with 0.3 M CaCl2 or 0.6 M NaCl, tumbled, and aged 24 h. Tumbling was conducted at 20 C, -635 mm Hg, 20 rpm for 1 h. Hot-boned and cold-boned (24 h) fillets were used as controls. One fillet from each carcass was baked and sheared with an Allo-Kramer cell, whereas the other fillet was used for biochemical analysis. Shear values indicated that both CaCl2- and NaCl-treated samples had significantly (P < 0.05) lower shear values than hot-boned controls but were similar (P > 0.05) to cold-boned samples. The CaCl2 injection treatment significantly elevated (P < 0.05) the tissue calcium content compared to all other treatments. There was no significant difference in heat-stable collagen content (P > 0.05) among all treatments, which indicated that CaCl2 or NaCl did not contribute to meat tenderness through degradative changes in collagen. Calpain data indicated that mu-calpain had disappeared by 24 h aging in all treatments. The m-calpain activity was significantly lower (P < 0.05) in samples treated with CaCl2 than in the other samples. The NaCl-treated samples had m-calpain activity similar (P > 0.05) to that of hot-boned controls. Sarcomeres of CaCl2-treated samples were significantly shorter (P < 0.05) than those of cold-boned controls, were similar (P > 0.05) to those of hot-boned controls, and were shorter than those of NaCl-treated muscles. The sarcomere length and calpain data suggest that CaCl2 tenderized fillets by ionic strength and calcium-specific effects (possibly a proteolytic action), whereas the NaCl solution tenderized by ionic strength effect at a similar conductivity level to that of the CaCl2 solution.