No abstract

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effect of mutual opposition of breast muscles during rigor development on ultimate tenderness of the cooked meat. In each experiment, 32 broilers were conventionally processed. Immediately after evisceration, the supracoracoideus tendon was cut at the humeral insertion on one wing (treatment) and the opposite wing was sham-operated with the tendon exposed but not cut (control). The tendon of insertion for the Pectoralis minor muscle was cut to prevent the opposition of breast muscles during rigor, while avoiding confounding effects caused by making cuts on the muscles, as would occur during typical deboning. Cutting the tendon significantly (P < 0.05) increased Warner-Bratzler shear values after cooking for both the Pectoralis major and P. minor. Deboning at 2 h post-mortem resulted in shear values for the P. major of 7.22 kg for controls and 9.08 kg for treated carcasses; P. minor shear values were 2.98 kg for controls and 4.04 kg for treated carcasses. Deboning at 24 h post-mortem produced P. major shear values of 4.68 kg for controls and 5.68 kg for treated carcasses. On whole carcasses, breast muscle opposition during rigor contributes to the tenderness of the cooked meat.

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate differences in rigor development that occur as a function of location within the broiler breast muscles, pectoralis major (p. major) and pectoralis minor (p. minor). Three locations were evaluated, corresponding to anterior, middle, and posterior samples taken between the cranial and caudal ends of each muscle. Results of the first experiment indicated that the 1.55-mu sarcomere lengths of hot-boned p. major muscle at the anterior location were significantly shorter than those at the posterior location, which were 1.69 mu. Sarcomere lengths of p. minor were shorter than those of p. major in hot-boned muscles, but longer in those aged intact, indicating a significant muscle x treatment interaction. In the second experiment, the anterior location of hot-boned p. major reached the onset phase of rigor in about 1 h, whereas those at the posterior location required between 2 and 4 h postmortem. Between 1 and 8 h postmortem, sarcomere lengths for the anterior location of p. major were also significantly shorter than lengths in the posterior location, but the differences after 24 h were not significant. Samples at all locations of p. minor reached onset of rigor by 15 to 30 min postmortem, with no locational differences throughout the 24 h period of aging. The results of both experiments generally indicated differences between profiles of rigor development of the two muscles and between samples at different locations of the much larger and more complex p. major.