We investigated the effects of 20 h of heating at 60°C and 75°C, after initial 20 min of heating at 85°C, on the texture of chicken meat and on the chemical components of chicken stock. Prolonged heating at both temperatures decreased the toughness of chicken meat, especially of the skin. Totally, 130 of the 195 metabolites detected using untargeted metabolomics increased > 50% after prolonged heating with overall shifts of chemical component profiles smaller at 60°C. At 75°C, the levels of 16 metabolites (including creatinine, indoxyl-sulfate, and cysteine-S-sulfate associated with elevated health risks) increased > 8-fold; and 4 metabolites (including glutamine and reduced glutathione, one of the main cellular antioxidants) decreased > 8-fold. Reduced glutathione was relatively abundant in the initial stock and was still detected at 60°C, but not at 75°C. Our results support cooking at a lower temperature and provide a molecular basis for improving chicken recipes.

Summary Microbial decomposition of allochthonous plant components imported into the aquatic environment is one of the vital steps of the carbon cycle on earth. To expand the knowledge of the biodegradation of complex plant materials in aquatic environments, we recovered a sunken wood from the bottom of Otsuchi Bay, situated in northeastern Japan in 2012. We isolated Sphingobium with high ferulic acid esterase activity. The strain, designated as OW59, grew on various aromatic compounds and sugars, occurring naturally in terrestrial plants. A genomic study of the strain suggested its role in degrading hemicelluloses. We identified a gene encoding a non‐secretory tannase‐family α/β hydrolase, which exhibited ferulic acid esterase activity. This enzyme shares the consensus catalytic triad (Ser‐His‐Asp) within the tannase family block X in the ESTHER database. The molecules, which had the same calculated elemental compositions, were produced consistently in both the enzymatic and microbial degradation of rice straw crude extracts. The non‐secretory tannase‐family α/β hydrolase activity may confer an important phenotypic feature on the strain to accelerate plant biomass degradation. Our study provides insights into the underlying biodegradation process of terrestrial plant polymers in aquatic environments.