Effect of hot deboning and polyphosphate on refrigerated storage stabilityof quail sticks

Physico-chemical, bacterial and sensory quality of sticks prepared from hot deboned (un-chilled; less than or equal to 60 min post-mortem) or cold deb oned (Ih slush ice + 4 h aging at 4+/-1 degrees C) spent quail hen meat tre ated with or without 0.5% sodium tripolyphosphate (STP) was evaluated under refrigerated (4+/-1 degrees C; 80-85% RH] storage. Although the product sh owed significant (P< 0.01) increase in percent weight loss with storage tim e, the differences between deboning and STP treatments were non-significant . Moisture, crude proteins and ether extractives of sticks, which averaged 68.5, 19.4 and 9.6%, respectively, also did trot differ significantly betwe en processing treatments or storage periods. However, addition of STP raise d emulsion pH by about 0.30 unit, improved emulsion stability, inhibited li pid oxidation and restricted bacterial multiplication, resulting in the ext ension of organoleptically acceptable shelflife of the product upto 9 days, as against 6 days for samples without STP, regardless of deboning methods.