Correlation between instrumental stress and oral processing property of chicken broiler breast under wooden breast myopathy

Abstract

Summary Wooden breast myopathy affects the quality of fresh and processed chicken breast muscle. The objective of this study was to construct a classification method by instrumental stress, and the effects of wooden breast myopathy on meat quality and oral processing property, and was to explore correlations between stress and oral processing parameters. The severity of wooden breast myopathy was highly correlated to fillet weight (R2 = 0.740), thickness (R2 = 0.826) and hardness (R2 = 0.803) (P < 0.01). The 3D scatter model based on stress is robust and reliable to classify the fillets into four categories (normal, mild, moderate and severe wooden breast fillets), avoiding manual grading. Moisture, fat, collagen, pH, drip loss, cooking loss, thawing loss, purge loss, hardness, gumminess and chewiness significantly increased with the severity of wooden breast myopathy, whereas fat, ash and water/salt‐soluble protein contents significantly decreased (P < 0.05). Shear force reached the maximum (36.32 N) when this myopathy was moderate. The myopathy led to an increase in masseter activity and the particle size of the bolus. Significantly higher correlations between stress, Dx(50) (R2 = 0.790), Dx(90) (R2 = 0.771) and D[4,3] (R2 = 0.797) were found (P < 0.01). This study also showed that jaw movement and muscle activity could be used to understand the links between physical property and orally sensory property.

Insights into Intramuscular Connective Tissue Associated with Wooden Breast Myopathy in Fast-Growing Broiler Chickens

“…Some authors observed diffuse interstitial thickening with variable amounts of loose connective tissue, granulation tissue, and fibrosis in the WBM-affected areas [ 5 ], and thickened perimysial and endomysial layers in WBM-affected PMs [ 31 ]. PMs had increased connective tissue space, collagen deposition, myofiber necrosis, and inflammatory cell accumulation with WBM severity [ 5 , 7 , 9 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Specimens from WBM-affected PMs contained dense collagen fiber bundles that were randomly aligned.…”

“…The occurrence of WBM heavily affects the meat quality of pectoralis majors (PMs) from broiler chickens. Morphologically, WBM leads to changes in size, shape, yield, weight, thickness, and hardness of PMs [ 7 ]. These morphometric parameters increase with the severity of WBM, confirming the correlation between the occurrence of WBM and heavier and thicker PMs.…”

“…This muscular abnormality has substantial implications on nutritional and technological qualities. WBM-affected PMs also have higher moisture, crude fat, and collagen; lower total protein; worse water-holding capacity; and altered texture properties [ 5 , 7 ]. Processed products (meatball, meat patty, sausage, and nugget) exhibit altered water-holding capacity and texture properties [ 10 , 11 , 12 ].…”

“…Our previous studies have shown the influences of WBM on the structure, proximate chemical compositions, collagen, texture, and oral property (masseter activity, chewing duration, chewing frequency, and particle size of meat bolus after chewing) of PMs, and the changes in connective tissue obviously affect meat quality [ 7 , 20 ]. Further studies are essential to investigate the influence of WBM on connective tissue.…”

Improving water retention of chicken breast meats by CaCl2 combined with pulsed electric fields

“…In recent years, consumption of poultry meat has increased extensively due to its low-cost, low-fat and cholesterol contents, and high protein contents (Kim et al, 2020;Sujiwo et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2021). Freezing is a widely used technique for preservation of meat quality for prolonged periods.…”