SENSORY AND OBJECTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILER MEAT FROM COMMERCIALBROILERS FED RENDERED WHOLE-HEN MEAL

The objective of the study was to determine sensory and objective char acteristics of chicken breast and thigh meat from commercial broilers fed rendered whole-hen meal (RHM), produced from commercial laying hen mortality losses. Breast and thigh muscles from 90 6-wk-old straight- run broilers fed starter and grower diets consisting of either 0, 8, o r 12% RHM, were evaluated for sensory characteristics, instrumental te xture and compositional profiles. The RHM treatments had no adverse ef fects (P > 0.05) on juiciness, chicken flavor intensity, tenderness, o r compositional profiles for the breast or thigh meat. Off-flavor scor es for all treatments were above the threshold value, indicating that the RHM imparted no off-flavors to the breast and thigh meat. Warner-B rattier shear measurements were similar (P > 0.05) for breast meat fro m broilers in all treatments. No shear measurements were conducted for the thigh meat. It was concluded that RHM can be incorporated into th e diets of chicks at levels of up to 12% without causing objectionable sensory characteristics in the cooked broiler meat.