Effect of marination on broiler breast meat quality traits

Marination is a commonly used method of adding value to different types of meat which involves injection and/or tumbling to disperse in a muscle a solution of water, salt and other ingredients. The most common ingredients used for poultry marination are salt and phosphates, which have been shown to increase meat yield and water-holding capacity, as well as improve colour and texture. However some nutritional drawbacks have been recently evidenced in relation with the use of phosphates in foods. Therefore the aim of this study was to test ingredients able to replace phosphates in meat products. A total of 140 samples (cylindrical shape of 1×4 cm size) were obtained from an homogenous batch of 24h post mortem broiler breast meat (Ross 708, females, 47 day-old). Samples were subjected to vacuum tumbling with a 12% water:meat ratio using one of the following seven marinating solutions: non-marinated (control, C); 7.7% NaCl (S); 2.3% Na4O7P2 (P); 2.3% NaHCO3 (B); 7.7% NaCl and 2.3% Na4O7P2 (SP); 7.7% NaCl and 2.3% NaHCO3 (SB); 7.7% NaCl, 2.3% Na4O7P2 and 2.3% NaHCO3 (SBP). pH and colour (L*a*b*) before and after marination and subsequent cooking as well as marinade uptake, drip loss, expressible moisture, cooking loss, moisture and yield were measured. The main results confirmed that independently of the ingredient and marination conditions, the water-binding capacity was improved, cooking loss was reduced, and the yield was enhanced compared with non-marinated meat samples. Sodium bicarbonate was able to guarantee at least the same marination performances in respect to phophates. In conclusion, this study showed that sodium bicarbonate in combination with salt can be profitably used also in poultry meat as alternative to phosphates to prepare further processed products.