The measurement of pH in raw and frozen turkey Pectoralis superficialis muscle

The objective of this study was to validate a rapid method for muscle pH assessment. Early pH is a good indicator of turkey breast meat quality. The stabilisation of pH can be obtained by homogenising fresh muscle in iodoacetate, but it is time consuming and not appropriate to the rate of poultry slaughter line. To reduce the time required for pH assessment, we compared different methods (homogenisation in iodoacetate of fresh (reference method), frozen and freeze-dried samples, direct measurement in tissue). Freezing the samples in liquid nitrogen before homogenisation in iodoacetate buffer could be substituted to the reference method for the measurement of pH at 3 and/or 20 min post mortem. For ultimate pH, however, the relationships were not good enough to substitute a new procedure to the reference method.