Protein Solubility in Turkey Breast Post-Mortem

Researchers have studied solubility of muscle proteins because of fundamental interests and because of the possible relationship between the change in this characteristic and the “aging” phenomenon in meat. Most of the work with poultry has been done on chickens (Khan and van den Berg, 1964; Khan, 1962; Weinberg and Rose, 1960); little work has been done with turkeys (Scharpf and Marion, 1964; Scharpf et at., 1966). There is general consensus that in beef, pork and chicken muscle, protein solubility decreases through rigor mortis and increases during post-rigor. To further study the changes in protein solubility of turkey breast muscle post-mortem, ten adult male turkeys were sacrificed, processed and stored at 2°C. Samples were taken at random from the breast muscle of each turkey at 0, 2, 4, 8, 24, 48 and 72 hours post-mortem. These samples were ground in an Omni-mixer for 45 seconds, divided into quadruplicate 4 g.…