Consumption of poultry meat has been tremendously increased during the last decades, while that of the red meats declined. One of the major reasons for this success has been that poultry meat has a healthier nutritional profile (high protein/low fat content coupled with a balanced n-6 to n-3 PUFA) as opposite to red meats. However, recent reports evidenced that fat content, and as consequence calories, are not so low in poultry meat yielded by modern strains selected for higher growth rate. This seems also related to the increasing prevalence of meat abnormalities such as white striping (WS, white striations seen parallel to muscle fibres) which resulted in muscle loss with associated replacement with connective and fat tissues. The aim of this study is to evaluate macronutrient composition of chicken breast meat as affected by WS. Seventy two normal (showing no WS) and white-striped (> 1 mm thick striations) Pectoralis major muscles were obtained from a batch of 24-h post-mortem broiler breast meat (Ross 708, 2.8 kg live weight) and used to quantify macronutrient content (moisture, fat and protein), protein composition (myofibrillar, sarcoplasmic and collagen), and molecular weights pattern of myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic proteins by SDS-PAGE analysis. The results showed that white striped breast meat had significantly (P < 0.05) more fat content (2.5 vs 0.8%), lower protein content (20.9 vs 22.8%) and increased collagen/proteins ratio (5.7 vs 6.8). White striped fillets had more caloric content (106.6 vs 98.3 kcal/100g) and fat contribution in total energy was significantly increased from 7.1 to 21.3% and protein contribution was lowered from 92.8 to 78.6%. It was also evidenced a different pattern between myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic fractions. All these results indicate that appearance of WS in modern strains selected for higher growth rate can impair nutritional profile of chicken breast by reducing protein quality, increasing total caloric content and changing the caloric balance due to dramatic increase in contribution of fat in total energy.
Consequences of selection for higher growth rate on nutritional quality of chicken breast meat
MUDALAL, SAMER;PETRACCI, MASSIMILIANO;BABINI, ELENA;CAVANI, CLAUDIO
2013
Abstract
Consumption of poultry meat has been tremendously increased during the last decades, while that of the red meats declined. One of the major reasons for this success has been that poultry meat has a healthier nutritional profile (high protein/low fat content coupled with a balanced n-6 to n-3 PUFA) as opposite to red meats. However, recent reports evidenced that fat content, and as consequence calories, are not so low in poultry meat yielded by modern strains selected for higher growth rate. This seems also related to the increasing prevalence of meat abnormalities such as white striping (WS, white striations seen parallel to muscle fibres) which resulted in muscle loss with associated replacement with connective and fat tissues. The aim of this study is to evaluate macronutrient composition of chicken breast meat as affected by WS. Seventy two normal (showing no WS) and white-striped (> 1 mm thick striations) Pectoralis major muscles were obtained from a batch of 24-h post-mortem broiler breast meat (Ross 708, 2.8 kg live weight) and used to quantify macronutrient content (moisture, fat and protein), protein composition (myofibrillar, sarcoplasmic and collagen), and molecular weights pattern of myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic proteins by SDS-PAGE analysis. The results showed that white striped breast meat had significantly (P < 0.05) more fat content (2.5 vs 0.8%), lower protein content (20.9 vs 22.8%) and increased collagen/proteins ratio (5.7 vs 6.8). White striped fillets had more caloric content (106.6 vs 98.3 kcal/100g) and fat contribution in total energy was significantly increased from 7.1 to 21.3% and protein contribution was lowered from 92.8 to 78.6%. It was also evidenced a different pattern between myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic fractions. All these results indicate that appearance of WS in modern strains selected for higher growth rate can impair nutritional profile of chicken breast by reducing protein quality, increasing total caloric content and changing the caloric balance due to dramatic increase in contribution of fat in total energy.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
