Detection of blood (hemoglobin) contamination in poultry muscle tissue

Incidence of blood spots in fresh marketed poultry and batter or breaded frozen fried chicken may be related to certain processing parameters (i.e., stunning, bleed-out time). Spectrophotometric and cation exchange high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) procedures were evaluated as potential methods to test for hemoglobin (Hb) contamination in poultry tissue. Muscle tissue was blended with TRIS-ethylenediaminetetraacetate buffer, pH 7.4, centrifuged and the extract scanned for absorbance at 540 and 580 nm. Tests with model systems gave a linear regression coefficient of r + .98 for detection of 0 to 1% blood in experimentally contaminated tissue. Analyses of extracts by cation exchange HPLC (545 nm) showed three separation peaks characteristic of hemoglobin. Isoelectrofocusing of the extracts on thin-layer polyacrylamide gels (pI 3 to 10) was also evaluated. These procedures could prove useful in subsequent studies to determine the cause of blood spotting in muscle tissue.