A SURVEY OF THE QUALITY OF SIX RETAIL BRANDS OF BONELESS, SKINLESS CHICKEN BREAST FILLETS OBTAINED FROM RETAIL SUPERMARKETS IN THE ATHENS, GEORGIA AREA *

To assess the variation in quality of chicken breast fillets available from retail supermarkets, six brands of boneless, skinless fillets without additives were obtained from the fresh counter at grocery stores in Athens, GA, and the surrounding area during fall of 2005. The samples were stored at − 20C and subsequently cooked using a Henny Penny MCS‐6 combi oven (Henny Penny Corp., Eaton, OH). Quality parameters of the fillets were measured on the cooked chicken breast fillets including cook yield, descriptive sensory flavor and texture profiling, and Warner–Bratzler (WB) shear force. Our results show that the average cook yield ranged from 78.1 to 80.9%, the average intensity of individual descriptive sensory characteristics was less than 5.4 in a 0–15 universal scale, and WB shear force values were less than 5.2 kg. There were no significant differences in the intensity among brands of all flavor attributes and the texture characteristics associated with moisture. However, significant differences were found among the brands for cook yield, mechanical properties of texture (including springiness, cohesiveness, hardness and chewiness) and WB shear force values. The variation of WB shear force measurements (coefficient of variation) depended on brand. These results indicate that differences exist in the quality and shear force consistency among market brands of boneless, skinless chicken breast fillets available in Athens, GA, and the surrounding area.PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS This study is the first survey reported to evaluate the quality of boneless, skinless chicken breast products without additives in U.S. retail market. This study supplies the evidence that the intensity of sensory quality is mild of cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast products and there are the differences in the quality among the different retail brands obtained by consumers.