Assessment of chicken breast meat quality after freeze/thaw abuse using magnetic resonance imaging techniques

• Published in: Journal of the science of food and agriculture Vol. 99; no. 2; pp. 844 - 853
• Main Authors: Frelka, John C, Phinney, David M, Yang, Xiangyu, Knopp, Michael V, Heldman, Dennis R, Wick, Macdonald P, Vodovotz, Yael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 30.01.2019; John Wiley and Sons, Limited
• Subjects: Abuse; Animals; Chickens; Correlation analysis; drip loss; Food Handling; Freeze-thawing; Freezing; Imaging techniques; Localization; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Meat; Meat - analysis; Meat quality; Medical imaging; Melting; Mobility; MRI; Muscle, Skeletal - chemistry; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Organic chemistry; Poultry; Proton density (concentration); quality; Quality assessment; Quality Control; Quality management; Resonance; Saline water; Thawing; water mobility; thawing; freezing; MRI; water mobility; meat; drip loss; quality
• ISSN: 0022-5142; 1097-0010
• DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.9254

BACKGROUND Freezing/thawing meat can result in quality losses as a result of the formation, melting and reformation of ice. These changes in water state can result in alterations in texture, water holding and other key quality attributes. It was hypothesized that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could quantify changes in mobility and localization of water as a function of freezing/thawing, which could be correlated with quality measurements. RESULTS Drip loss increased significantly for unbrined samples by over 100% after each freeze/thaw cycle (1.5% to 3.3% to 5.3% drip loss). Brine uptake decreased 50% after 2 cycles (from 53% to 28% mass uptake). Drip loss for brined samples increased after 2 cycles; other attributes were not significantly affected. MRI showed brined samples had less change in both proton density and T2 distributions. High‐field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging showed greater change in T2 distributions. CONCLUSION As freeze/thaw damage increased, meat quality was reduced in both brined and unbrined chicken breasts, with more prominent changes in unbrined meat. These decreases in quality correlated with changes, albeit small, in water mobility and localization as measured by MRI. High‐field NMR micro‐imaging showed more dramatic changes in T2 distributions in unbrined samples. These MRI techniques are shown to be useful in the assessment of meat quality after freeze/thaw abuse. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry