Abstract:
The intense production of eggs in Algeria, leads to an overabundant and availability of spent hens. Hens’ meat is perceived and judged to be very tough and undesirable for direct consumption; henceit is entirely oriented tothe transformation. The main objective of this preliminary study was to study the effect of slaughter age on the carcass traits and meat quality of ISA (F15) spent hens, the largest produced poultry in Algeria. To reach those objectives, total of 16 spent hens at different ages (220 vs 337 days, 8 animals per batch) were used. Toughness and texture/acceptability attributes (tenderness, juiciness, cohesiveness, chewiness, residues and overall liking) of breast muscle have been assessed by penetrometry and sensory analysis using a trained panel, respectively. Water holding capacity, percentage of released water, cooking losses, ultimate pH andmyofibril fragmentation index (MFI) were also determined.A proteomiccharacterization of sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar proteins was done on eachanimal of the two hensgroup. The preliminary results of this study showed that the penetration depth was negatively correlated with tenderness scoresand myofibril fragmentation index. Tenderness scores were negatively correlated with animal age and positively with ultimate pH. The meat of the studied hens has been judged very acceptable according to the highest scores (scores > 5.5/10) given by the panelists. Consequently, it appears that the overall liking scores are independent of hens’age. Otherwise, monodimensionalSDS-PAGE analysis displayed some differences in the proteomicprofiles of the two groupsin spite ofthe usefulness of the bi-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) in this study
to determine the underlying mechanisms oftoughness/tenderness. Through this preliminary study, it seems thatISA F15 spent hens can be used for a domestic consumption.
