Emulsifying Characteristics of Prerigor and Postrigor Poultry Muscle

THE red meat industry has recognized the value of prerigor meat in their formulations for sometime. In fact, it was common practice at one time to utilize prerigor meat in emulsified products. The use of prerigor meat has largely been discontinued because of excessive refrigeration and labor requirements (Saffle, 1968). Emulsification properties as related to the state of rigor, have been studied by a number of red meat researchers. Saffle and Galbreath (1964) compared prerigor and postrigor muscle and observed that extractability of salt-soluble proteins was more efficient in prerigor muscle. Trautman (1964) further indicated that porcine prerigor salt-soluble proteins produce more stable emulsions than that observed from postrigor salt-soluble proteins. Emulsions capacity of prerigor bovine meat was reported by Acton and Saffle (1969) to be superior to that found from postrigor bovine meat. Little previous work has been reported on the emulsification properties of poultry meat as related to…