Influence of salting on technological properties of lump and chopped chicken meat

Laying hens’ meat is a complete protein product with the mass fraction of protein equal to 18-19%. At the same time, lump and chopped (mechanically deboned) chicken meat has a reduced level of water-binding capacity and an increased content of coarse-fibrous muscle and connective tissues, which causes certain difficulties when using this raw meat in sausage production. To solve this problem, the effect of salting on the technological properties of lump and chopped chicken meat was studied. For control and experimental samples of each type of meat (lump and mechanically deboned), four curing compositions were used, while for lump meat a wet salting was used, for mechanically deboned one – dry salting. The data obtained indicate that the water-binding capacity of the mechanically deboned poultry control samples before salting compared to lump meat was steadily higher by 2.61% when salting for 0.5 days and by 5.13% when salting for 2.5. As well, with an increase in the concentration of salt solutions the averaged water-binding capacity values of lump meat prototypes increased from 98.36% to 106.10%, and mechanically deboned poultry meat – from 100.97% to 105.8%, which indicates the initial stage of the maturation process. It was found that the penetration index of the control sample of lump meat with an increase in the duration of salting from the beginning to 3 days decreased from 100.35% to 75%, and the value of the penetration index of the mechanically deboned poultry meat prototypes during the first days of salting, on the contrary, slightly increased from 100% to 104%. With an increase in the duration of curing and the concentration of curing compositions, the penetration index of the mechanically deboned poultry meat decreased from 100% to 90%, which indicated a decrease in the strength of its coagulation structure.