Detecting woody breast chicken with rapid technology

Auburn University is developing rapid hand-held technologies that can detect woody chicken breast fillets after deboning.

Severe woody chicken breasts exhibit toughness in 50 percent or more of the fillet tissue.| Dr. Amit Moray
Severe woody chicken breasts exhibit toughness in 50 percent or more of the fillet tissue.| Dr. Amit Moray

Woody breast meat from fast-growing, big broilers is the main cause of increased consumer complaints in the foodservice industry. However, there is only one commercially applicable method (hand palpitation) to detect and isolate woody breast fillets from the normal fillets, and that method is subjective and labor intensive.

Auburn University researchers are using a novel approach to study woody breast and develop rapid hand-held technologies that can accurately and repeatedly detect woody breast fillets after deboning. We are exploring the bioelectrical properties of woody breast for rapid detection of the myopathy meat.

The new method promises to be an improvement over existing methods to detect and isolate woody breast fillets from the normal fillets.

normal-breast-fillet

Normal chicken breast shows no woody breast or toughness. | Dr. Amit Moray

Current methods of woody breast detection

The hand-palpation method to detect and isolate woody breast meat involves palpating the breast fillets with one hand to detect toughness or hardness of the fillets and then classifying the fillets into one of the several scales developed by researchers or quality assurance personnel (see Examples of scales used to classify woody breast).

Examples-scales-to-classify-woody-breast

Hand palpitation involves using one hand to detect toughness or hardness of fillets and then classifying the fillets into one of the several scales.

The hand palpation method, although very simple to use, it is extremely subjective, personnel dependent, as well as the fatigue level, training and motivation leading to the following:

  • Inaccuracy in detecting woody breast meat
  • False positives/false negatives
  • No repeatability

Hand-palpation is not a reliable method and currently must be replaced with an objective method such as texture analysis (Allo-kramer Shear, Blunt-MORS, etc.) using a texture analyzer. However, the texture analysis method is a lab-based method, which requires a heavy texture analyzer attached to a computer. Moreover, the method is time consuming since the fillets must be cooked for 45-50 minutes, cooled to room temperature and then analyzed on the texture analyzer.

Rapid, hand-held technology for woody breast detection

At Auburn University, we are exploring the bioelectrical properties of woody breast for rapid detection of the myopathy breast fillet meat. The method can accurately and repeatedly detect woody breast fillets after deboning.

Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) measures bioelectric properties (conductance and resistance) of meat arising from cell membranes and from extra- and intracellular fluids. Although initially designed to study the human fat: water ratio, BIA has been used to detect the proximate composition and freshness of fish and meats. Our laboratory group is the first to use bioelectrical impedance analysis to detect woody breast fillets in broilers.

Bioelectrical-impedance-severe-woody-and-normal-fillets

Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis values of severe woody and normal (non-woody) breast fillets are significantly different indicating the method can be used to detect severe woody breast.

Preliminary and future detection studies

Preliminary studies have successfully demonstrated that the electrical properties of woody breast and normal breast meat are statistically different. Data was presented at the International Poultry Scientific Forum (Poultry Processing and Products I) at the International Production & Processing Expo 2017.

Once the technology is developed, we envision that it will benefit the poultry industry in multiple ways:

  • Rapid detection of woody breast
  • Increased accuracy of detection will result in reduced consumer complaints
  • In its existing form, BIA can be used as a “near line” technology for quality assurance in deboning facilities
  • Further processors can use the technology to ensure quality of incoming breast fillets

Future studies will be conducted to determine if BIA can detect breast fillets with varying woody breast severities such that processors can separate meat for targeted customers. We would like to validate the BIA method in a processing plant settings to gain an understanding about the practical in-situ functionality of the equipment, accuracy of detection and compare BIA’s effectiveness to the hand-palpation method.

 

Read more:

Poultry nutritional strategeies to reduce woody breast, www.WATTAgNet.com/articles/29669

Page 1 of 33
Next Page