The Effect of Preslaughter Temperature, Stress, Struggle and Anesthetization on Color and Textural Characteristics of Turkey Muscle

Abstract

Forty tom turkeys at 24 weeks of age were equally randomized into the following four treatments: 1) Heat stress at 42 C for one hour prior to slaughter; 2) Cold stress in ice water immersion for 20 minutes at 4 C prior to slaughter; 3) Anesthetization with sodium pentobarbital at a dose of .143 grains per pound of live weight just prior to slaughter; 4) Birds were allowed to struggle freely during slaughter. All birds were slaughtered using the subscald method (59 C) and chilled overnight prior to freezing at —29 C. Carcasses were packaged in polyvinylidene chloride film and measurements were made after storage at —29 C for 3 months. Cold stressed and anesthetized turkeys showed little struggle during bleeding, whereas free struggle and heat stressed birds exhibited considerable struggle. The free struggle birds were noted to have a lower muscle pH than that observed in the other treatments. Shear values of the pectoralis muscle was significantly higher in heat stressed and free struggle birds. There was a significant increase in Gardner L and a decrease in Gardner aL values of white meat as struggle was minimized in the cold stress and anesthetized treatments. These results indicate that pre-slaughter stress and struggle may affect the color and textural characteristics of turkey meat.