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Abstract
To ameliorate textural defects associated with the wooden breast myopathy, multiple forms of further processing were investigated in succession. Breast fillets were sorted to three categories based on wooden breast severity via manual palpation: normal (NORM), moderate (MOD), and severe (SEV). Four further processing treatments were applied to all severities: no treatment (CON), blade tenderization (BT), blade tenderization and vacuum marination (BTM), and blade tenderization, injection enhancement, and vacuum marination (BTIM). Prior to processing treatment application NORM, MOD, and SEV differed for compression scores, 21.46 N, 33.37 N, and 50.05 N, respectively (P < 0.05). After processing, SEV fillets subjected to BTIM and BTM did not differ (P ≥ 0.55) in marinade uptake compared to MOD fillets subjected to BTM, but regardless of processing treatment SEV fillets had impaired uptake compared to NORM fillets (P < 0.05). Additionally, peak force, measured via multiple blade shear, for SEV fillets that underwent more aggressive further processing did not differ (P ≥ 0.07) when compared to MOD fillets regardless of treatment and NORM fillets except those subjected to BTIM. When fillets were subjected to texture profile analysis, cooked fillet hardness was not different between processing treatments (P = 0.07). only a difference within severity was noted with SEV being greater (P < 0.05) than NORM which was greater (P < 0.05) than MOD. Overall, the negative attributes associated with WB fillets may be mitigated when breasts undergo multiple forms of processing. Although SEV fillets had deficits when compared to NORM fillets, the industry may be able to salvage borderline or MOD fillets through further processing.