THE INFLUENCE OF THE TEMPERATURE AND SCALDING TIME ON THE TEXTURAL PROFILE OF CHICKEN MEAT

P.C. Boişteanu, Roxana Lazăr, M.M. Ciobanu

Abstract
    The research had as a general objective the assessment of the determinant effects of the parameters involved in the scalding process on the textural profile (TPA) of chicken meat. In order to carry on the study and the experiments we have formed three experimental batches, the biological material was represented by the "ROSS 308" broiler, 42 days old. The slaughtering production line was the logistic basis that allowed both changing technological parameters involved in the stunning for the three experimental batches (L1=50°C, L2=54°C, L3=58°C) (with 50 chickens/experimental batch) and in obtaining the main anatomical portion (chest, upper thigh, lower thigh).
    For achieving the texture profile, was used the dynamometer Lloyd LFP, meat samples being shaped as a cylinder with a = 45 mm. The analysis of force - time curve of the TPA instrumental method has leaded to the obtaining of six instrumental parameters (hardness, cohesiveness, adhesiveness, gumminess, springiness, chewiness).
    Chest muscle meat samples harvested from the three experimental lots have been described by a medium hardness ranging between 8.51±1.160 - 13.82±1.124 N. Calculation of the cohesiveness highlighted the highest average on the chest muscle harvested from L1 batch (0.39±0.018), followed in a descended way by the muscle harvested from L2 batch (0.36±0.016) and L3 batch (0.31±0.027) for the same cut anatomical region. Medium values that describe the elasticity of the muscle samples, following the same trend in terms of ranking experimental batches, explainable fact, because springiness is a parameter produced by cohesiveness and hardness.

Key words: scalding, temperature, time