Quality Differences in Wooden and Normal Broiler Breast Meat Marinated with Traditional and Clean Label Marinades

Abstract

Wooden breast (WB) is a Pectoralis major muscle myopathy in broilers that negatively impacts breast meat quality. The objective of this research was to evaluate quality differences between normal (NOR), moderately woody (MOD), and severely woody (SEV) broiler breast that were marinated with water (control); water, sodium phosphate, and salt (traditional); or water, potassium carbonate, and salt (clean label). Treatments were vacuum tumbled for 30 min and then frozen in a CO2 cabinet. A 3 × 3 factorial structure within a randomized complete block design with 3 replications was used to evaluate the effects of marinade (control, traditional, clean label) and WB severity (NOR, MOD, SEV) on tumble and cook loss, shear force, and texture profile analysis. For sensory analysis, a 2 × 3 factorial structure was used because the control was not evaluated. When averaged over WB severity, clean label marinade had less tumble loss (P < 0.05) than traditional. When averaged over marinade, NOR had less tumble loss (P < 0.05) than MOD and SEV. Marinated SEV were crunchier and less tender (P < 0.05) than MOD and NOR, and MOD was less tender (P < 0.05) than NOR. Similarly, the clean SEV was chewier (P < 0.05) than MOD and NOR, but traditional SEV was only chewier (P < 0.05) than NOR. Clean and traditional SEV were less acceptable (P < 0.05) than MOD and traditional NOR, but no difference (P > 0.05) existed in acceptability between MOD and NOR for both marinades. In addition, when averaging over WB severity, the traditional marinade was preferred (P < 0.05) over the clean label marinade. Although the clean marinade samples were tender, the clean label formulation was not interchangeable with the traditional marinade when SEV was marinated. The use of salt and sodium phosphate or potassium carbonate improved the eating quality of MOD and SEV WB. However, differences remain between NOR and SEV in tenderness, gumminess, and crunchiness that negatively impact consumer acceptability.