Market trends have dictated that broilers be reared for divergent market demands for decades. Also, broiler genetic strains have been adapted to meet market demands which include: genetic selection for improved breast meat, the practice of growing birds to older ages and greater market weights to meet demands, and decreasing postmortem (PM) aging time to improve processing efficiency and fillet yield. These production practices can also affect product quality, specifically boneless breast fillet tenderness and water-holding capacity. To address these factors, a series of experiments were conducted to determine the effect of strain and slaughter age on meat quality parameters, as well as potential causes of these differences in meat quality. Furthermore, commonly accepted methods for improving boneless breast fillet meat quality were evaluated for the effect of older slaughter age and greater market weights. Based on these results, it appears that, regardless of debone time, broilers reared to greater market weights are tougher than birds reared to a lighter market weight. There are several factors that are compounding this increased toughness, including slower progression of rigor development, greater myofibrillar diameter, and perhaps decreased PM fragmentation; however, the relationship among factors is not fully exploited. Also, it appears that boneless breast fillet marination is critical in these larger birds to alleviate the toughness associated with pre-rigor debone, and may be necessary even when birds are deboned at 24 h PM. Therefore, based on these results it can be recommended that longer PM aging prior to debone is necessary when birds are slaughtered at heavier market weights, and aging the meat off the bone may be beneficial to improving boneless breast fillet tenderness. Furthermore, the commercial practice of tumble-marinating is effective for breast fillets of greater size and may be necessary to avoid negative consumer perception of tenderness.
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机译：市场趋势已表明，为了满足不同的市场需求，肉鸡需要饲养数十年。此外，已经对肉鸡遗传菌株进行了调整以满足市场需求，其中包括：遗传选择以改善胸肉，将禽类长成高龄和满足市场需求的更大重量，以及减少事后（PM）老化时间以提高加工效率和鱼片产量。这些生产实践还会影响产品质量，特别是无骨胸肉嫩度和保水能力。为了解决这些因素，进行了一系列实验，以确定品系和屠宰年龄对肉品质参数的影响，以及造成这些肉品质差异的潜在原因。此外，对提高屠宰年龄和增加市场重量的效果，评估了普遍接受的改善无骨胸肉肉品质的方法。根据这些结果，看来不管采用何种去骨时间，以较高市场重量饲养的肉鸡都比以较低市场重量饲养的鸡更坚韧。导致韧性增加的因素有很多，包括较慢的严格发展进程，更大的肌原纤维直径以及可能减少的PM碎裂。但是，因素之间的关系尚未得到充分利用。同样，似乎无骨的胸肉腌制对于这些较大的禽类至关重要，以减轻与僵硬前骨相关的韧性，即使在24 h PM剔骨时也可能是必需的。因此，根据这些结果，可以建议，当以较大的市场重量宰杀禽类时，在去骨之前必须进行更长的PM老化，而将骨头上的肉老化可能会有助于改善无骨胸肉的嫩度。此外，滚筒腌制的商业实践对于更大尺寸的胸脯肉片是有效的，并且可能是避免消费者对嫩感的负面感觉所必需的。
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