Principal component analysis of physical, color, and sensory characteristics of chicken breasts deboned at two, four, six, and twenty-four hours postmortem

Quality Assessment Research Unit, USDA, ARS, Richard B. Russell Agricultural Research Center, PO Box 5677, Athens, Georgia 30604-5677, USA.

The effects of various postchill deboning times on functional, color, yield, and sensory attributes of broiler breast meat were determined. Broiler breast muscles were deboned at 2, 4, 6, and 24 h postmortem, and pH, color change, cooking yield, shear force values, and sensory traits of the breast meat were recorded. Data were examined by multivariate data analysis, namely principal component analysis (PCA). Averages of 13 variables (pH, delta a*, shear force, and sensory attributes of cardboardy, wet feathers, springiness, cohesiveness, hardness, moisture release, particle size, bolus size, chewiness, and metallic aftertaste-afterfeel) decreased gradually as deboning time increased from 2 to 24 h, especially for shear values after 4 h of postmortem aging. Univariate correlation coefficients among 24 variables indicated several significant correlations. Warner-Bratzler shear force had high positive correlations with 5 sensory texture attributes (cohesiveness, hardness, particle size, bolus size, and chewiness). The parameters of pH, delta L*, delta a*, delta b*, and cooking yield were not obviously correlated with shear force values or any of the 18 sensory characteristics. PCA score plot showed no clear separation of the breast muscles deboned at different postmortem times, but it was still possible to differentiate them. The loading biplot suggested that 18 variables were effective in sample differentiation, including delta L*, shear force, cooking yield, 6 sensory flavor attributes (brothy, cardboardy, wet feathers, blood/serumy, salty, and sour), all sensory texture attributes except springiness, and all afterfeel-aftertaste properties.

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