Quality changes of broiler meat frozen using household refrigerator at -18°c and thawed using different techniques

Abstract

The physico-chemical quality parameters are altered during the freezing and thawing process. The uniform-sized whole broiler chicken samples and cut up parts samples were individually frozen in the household refrigerator (- 18°C) overnight. The frozen meat samples were thawed in the refrigerator (4°C), cool room (20°C), hot air oven (60°C), tap water (27±5°C), and hot water conditions (40°C) until the core temperature of the meat reaches 10°C in all method except refrigerator method. The refrigerator method thawing allowed to reach 4°C core temperature. In this study, the moisture content, water holding capacity, drip loss, cooking loss, and pH were investigated for both the whole and the cut-up parts samples. The moisture content and the drip loss were shown a significant difference (p<0.05) between different thawing methods for a whole chicken sample. Since the pH, water holding capacity, and cooking loss were not shown any significant differences (p>0.05) between different thawing methods for a whole chicken sample. The overall best quality retention was observed in the cool room thawing method. In cut-up part analysis, pH was shown a significant difference(p<0.05) between portions in the cool room thawing method but moisture content, water holding capacity, drip loss, and cooking loss were not shown any significant difference (p>0.05) between cut-up parts for cool room thawing method. According to this study, the different thawing methods affect the quality parameters such as moisture content and drip loss. The cut-up part analysis results, the cool room thawing method affects the pH of different cut-up parts of the broiler meat.