049 Marination of Chicken Using Sodium Carbonate as a Processing Aid

Texture profile analysis (TPA), Allo-Kramer shear force (AK) and sensory panel were performed to evaluate the use of sodium carbonate as a processing aid in marination of chicken breast strips, pectoralis major, and tenders, pectoralis minor. Breast strips and tenders were marinated to 10% pick-up with two different solutions; NaCO3 (6.1% water, 1% salt, 0.4% sodium phosphate, 2.0% seasoning and 0.5% sodium carbonate) and CONT (6.6% water, 1% salt, 0.4% sodium phosphate, and 2.0% seasoning) for a 2x2 factorial design. In the NaCO3 treatment, NaCO3 was first added to the water to adjust the pH to 10.5 before addition of the additional ingredients. Three 2.27 kg bags from each marination treatment and each product type were randomly selected from one day's production in duplicate for a total of 24 bags of product. TPA, AK, and a triangle test were performed on both baked (177°C for 20 min) and fried (177°C for 5.5 min) unbreaded, unseasoned meat using three randomly selected pieces for each test from each bag for a total of 9 pieces tested for each marination treatment and each product type in duplicate. For baked strips, there was no difference (P > 0.05) in peak force, area under the curve, hardness, springiness, gumminess or chewiness for CONT or NaCO3. Baked strips with NaCO3 had greater cohesiveness (P = 0.0005) and resilience (P = 0.0029) than CONT, only in rep 1. For baked tenders, there was no difference (P > 0.05) in hardness, springiness, gumminess, cohesiveness, resilience or chewiness for CONT or NaCO3. Baked tenders from rep 2 had greater peak force (P = 0.0061) and area under the curve (P = 0.0019) than rep 1. Fried strips in rep 1 had less springiness (P = 0.0054) when marinade included NaCO3, there were no other differences in attributes tested. Fried tenders had a lower peak force (P = 0.0027) area under the curve (P = 0.0062) for tenders marinated in NaCO3 for rep 1. Fried tenders with CONT had lower cohesiveness values (P = 0.0041) for rep 1, but all other values were similar. Thirty consumers participated in a triangle test for fried cooking method for each marination and product. Of 30 panelists, 2 were able to correctly identify the sample that was different in the triangle test, one for strips and one for tenders. Marination using NaCO3 does not negatively affect the combined overall product quality for TPA, Allo-Kramer or sensory panel for chicken tenders or strips.