Meat quality of broiler breast fillets with white striping and woody breast muscle myopathies

Abstract

The global poultry industry has been faced with emerging broiler breast meat quality issues including conditions known as white striping (WS, white striations parallel to muscle fibers) and woody breast (WB, hardness of raw fillet). Experiments were conducted to evaluate effects of WS and WB hardness on meat quality traits in broiler breast fillets. In Exp. 1, birds were processed at approximately 9 wk of age and deboned at 4 h postmortem (PM); in Exp. 2, birds were processed at approximately 6 and 9 wk of age and deboned at 2 h PM. Fillets were categorized as: normal for both white striping and woody breast (NORM); moderate for white striping and mild for woody breast (MILD); severe for white striping and mild for woody breast (WS); severe for woody breast and moderate for white striping (WB); or severe for both white striping and woody breast (BOTH). Sarcomere length, gravimetric fragmentation index, marination uptake, cook loss, and Meullenet-Owens razor shear energy (MORSE) values on non-marinated and marinated fillets were assessed. Sarcomeres tended to be longer (P = 0.07) with increasing severity of WS and WB in both experiments and gravimetric fragmentation index did not differ (P > 0.05) among categories. Marinade uptake decreased (P < 0.05) with increasing severity of WS and WB. Cook losses of non-marinated and marinated fillets were greatest (P < 0.05) in the BOTH category. Even though MORSE values did not differ (P > 0.05) in non-marinated fillets, the marinated BOTH fillets had greater MORSE values (P < 0.05) than other categories of fillets in Exp. 1. Non-marinated NORM fillets had greater (P < 0.05) MORSE values than the other categories at 6 wk age; however, MORSE values did not differ (P > 0.05) among categories of marinated breasts. At 9 wk, WS and BOTH were higher (P < 0.05) in MORSE compared to NORM for non-marinated fillets, but similar to NORM marinated fillets. Results suggest that severe degrees of white striping and woody breast, individually or in combination, negatively impact meat quality, especially water holding capacity attributes such as marinade uptake and cook loss.

Effect of "Wooden Breast" appearance on poultry meat quality, histological traits, and lesions characterization

“…Our WB fillets also displayed a worse water holding capacity (WHC), as demonstrated by the superior cooking losses (P < 0.01), which contributed to the higher total losses (P < 0.05) observed for this group (Table 3). Such result is in accordance with recent literature data (Tijare et al 2016). Muscles could exhibit a reduced ability to hold water because of the myodegeneration.…”

“…The exudate appeared with a prevalence of 43.4% and it was mainly fluid and clear (P < 0.01), whereas pinpoint hemorrhages were present in 30% of the cases and mostly in the upper area. On WB samples the WS condition was present in 90% of the cases, thus confirming the evidence that such myopathies often occur simultaneously (Tijare et al 2016), and it was mainly located in the cranial side of the breast, where the muscle displayed maximum thickness. At histological level, fibres of WB samples were identified for their larger CSA (P < 0.001) and for the higher incidence of giant-type fibres among them (P < 0.01) ( Table 5).…”

Wooden‐Breast, White Striping, and Spaghetti Meat: Causes, Consequences and Consumer Perception of Emerging Broiler Meat Abnormalities

“…Similar results were reported by Tijare et al. () using the MORS technique. Conversely, Soglia et al.…”

Chicken breast quality – normal, pale, soft and exudative (PSE) and woody – influences the functional properties of meat batters

“…It is reported that, after storage, the cooking loss of nonmarinated woody breast meat was higher than normal breast meat (Tijare et al ., ). Mazzoni et al .…”