Determining the Keeping Quality of Ice-Packed and Dry-Packed Poultry

IN THE past and even at the present time, a large percentage of fresh poultry in this country is shipped from dressing plants to wholesale houses, retail stores, restaurants, etc., in the ice-packed form. There are several disadvantages to ice-packed poultry. First of all, the shipping of ice-packed poultry is expensive, both from the standpoint of cost of ice and added shipping weight. Ice-packed poultry is also messy to handle. The packaging of ready-to-cook poultry in most cases could be done more economically at the dressing plant than at the retail store. There has been a feeling in the trade that dry-packed poultry will not hold up as long in the channels of trade as ice-packed nor will it have as much consumer appeal. It was because of this feeling that this study was undertaken. Naden and Jackson (1953) found that when ice-packed and dry-packed poultry were sold at the . . .