PSE conditions in Poultry: The European Perspective

Over the past 15 yr, the European processing industry has gradually increased the availability of poultry meat in a large variety of processed ready-meals following what occurred few years before in North America. This shift towards further processed products has underscored the necessity for higher standards in poultry meat in order to improve sensory characteristics and functional properties. In parallel to this market change, the consciousness of the PSE-like meat issue has extensively grown. In poultry, PSE-like meat can be generally considered meat having low ultimate pH, pale colour and poor functional properties (i.e. low water holding capacity). In the last 10 yr, some studies have been undertaken in Europe to both characterize and evaluate the overall incidence of PSE-like chicken and turkey breast meat. According to these studies, the occurrence of PSE-like meat can be up to 40% within a flock. Several key factors have been identified and their effects have been analyzed, including genetics, season, ante-mortem factors and slaughtering conditions.