BIOCHEMICAL AND COLOR CHARACTERISTICS OF SKINLESS BONELESS PALE CHICKEN BREAST

Extreme paleness of skinless, boneless chicken breasts sampled from th e packaging area of a commercial. processing plant was investigated. S ix hundred fillets were collected during 10 visits to the same process ing plant and were classified as normal (n = 300) and pale (n = 300) a ccording to visual assessment by the principal investigator. Color (sp ectrocolorimetry) and pH of each fillet were measured within 1 h follo wing collection. Fillets were frozen in liquid nitrogen and pooled sam ples of pale and normal meat were later analyzed for thiobarbituric ac id reactive substances (TEARS), percentage moisture, total pigment, my oglobin, and iron concentrations. Color characteristics (L, a, and b v alues), pH, total pigment, myoglobin, and iron concentrations were all found to be significantly different in pale meat when compared with n ormal chicken breast. The TEARS values and percentage moisture for the two groups were not different. Analyses of L, a, and b values reveale d that the L characteristic was a good color indicator that can be use d to distinguish normal from pale samples, with both high sensitivity and high specificity. Moisture uptake in postchilled, pale fillets cou ld not account for the decrease in total pigment concentration and myo globin content.