Texture evaluations of cooked, diced broiler breast samples by sensory and mechanical methods

The texture of cooked chicken breast is usually determined on intact pieces or strips that are representative of the muscle. Researchers emphasize the importance of uniformity of sample size and orientation of fibers to the shearing blades to ensure consistent data from instruments such as shear devices. For sensory evaluations, sample pieces of chicken breasts presented to panelists are often sized as single 2-cm2 or several 1-cm2 pieces. In this study, two sensory and two mechanical procedures were evaluated for efficacy in discerning texture differences in 1-cm2 pieces of cooked chicken. Three postmortem deboning times (2, 6, and 24 h) provided a texture quality spectrum. Sensory characteristics were evaluated by descriptive analysis trained panel (DA-TP) and by category scales-untrained panel (CS-UP). Twenty-gram breast portions of 1-cm2 pieces were evaluated using a multi-blade Allo-Kramer (AK) shear blade. Warner-Bratzler (WB) shear values of intact 1.9-cm-wide strips were also recorded. Discriminant analysis classification based on CS-UP gave higher error rates (probabilities of misclassification) than classification based on DA-TP. The CS-UP error rates were 0.36 (tender) and 0.65 (juiciness). The error rate of classification by DA-TP was 0.21. Error rates for classification by mechanical devices were 0.30 for WB and 0.21 for AK. Sample size is a consideration in texture evaluation protocols. Smaller sample pieces appear to mask differences in initial chew characteristics and in juiciness that are due to deboning time.