| Pale, soft and exudative meat is a growing problem in the turkey industry that has been associated with antemortem stress and processing conditions such as poor chilling. Pale, soft, and exudative meat is a result of accelerated postmortem glycolysis while carcass temperatures are still elevated resulting in protein denaturation and poor meat quality. These studies were conducted to determine biochemical and tenderness differences and to characterize rigor mortis development in turkey breast muscle. Also, the relationships between chilling rates, water holding capacity, color (L* value), gel strength, and protein denaturation were determined.; In all experiments, pectoralis samples were collected at different postmortem time points to evaluate rigor development and meat quality. Results of these experiments suggest that the electrical stunning procedures used in this study delay the development of rigor mortis in turkey pectoralis as indicated by a lower pH and higher R-value through 2 h postmortem. Also, toughness was increased in fillets deboned through 1 h postmortem. Therefore, deboning turkeys prior to 2 h postmortem from stunned birds will not affect significantly meat quality. Also, chilling in 30 C water for 90 min can cause a rapid decline in pH, a lower ultimate pH, paler fillets, softer gels, and increased protein denaturation when compared to carcasses more rapidly chilled at 0, 10 or 20 C. Therefore, a chilling time and temperature relationship must be considered to reduce the development of PSE meat. |
