Effect of Freezing, Thawing and Storing Broilers on Spoilage, Flavor and Bone Darkening

Abstract

WITH the current trend toward marketing broilers frozen in tray-packs, there was a need to study the effect on shelf-life, flavor, appearance, and bone darkening of broilers so processed when they have been stored frozen for varying lengths of time, thawed, and held at refrigerator temperatures. Newell et al. (1948) reported no statistically significant difference in shelf-life between birds frozen, thawed and held at 34°F. and non-frozen birds. The birds used in their study were semi-scalded, whole-eviscerated, and unpackaged. The effect of varying lengths of storage in the frozen state prior to thawing was not investigated nor was the effect of this treatment on flavor observed. Tressler and Evers (1947) stated that the shelf-life of poultry meat frozen and subsequently thawed is not greatly different from the shelf-life of fresh poultry meat. Using eviscerated fowl and roasters, Carlin et al. (1949) found no differences in flavor between birds aged and…