Impacto das condições de escaldagem em carcaças de frango durante o processamento industrial

Abstract

Scalding stage precedes plucking chicken, and consists of immersing the chicken in hot water (usually 50 to 64 °C) in single or multi-stage tanks and with countercurrent flow of drinking water, promoting changes in meat. The application of chemometric methods assists in extracting information from large amounts of data originated in the industry. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the type of scald (severe and soft) in poultry, through the process parameters (time and temperature) and tank types (single and multiple). The study was conducted in a poultry slaughterhouse that operates with an average slaughter of 350,000 chickens per day. Poultry from commercial of the Cobb breed, aged between 42 and 46 days, and were slaughtered following the sanitary standards in force in the industry. Four treatments were applied to the scald: simple/severe (59 °C and 68 seconds); simple/soft (56 °C and 110 seconds); multiple/severe (58/54 °C and 142 seconds); and multiple/soft (56/53 °C and 245 seconds). The postmortem pH reduction (3.5 minutes to 24 hours) was significant and the use of a multiple tank had the lowest pH value (5.78). The values of lightness L* obtained indicate that the use of multiple tanks promoted a less pale and uncooked meat, there was loss of red color (a*) with soft scald and increase of yellow color (b*) in the scald with simple tank. The soft scalding, in single or multiple tank, promoted an increase in the water uptake content (7.78% and 7.22 %) compared to the severe. This effect of the scald type on the color b* and the water uptake of the meat was explained by multiblock analysis. Severe scalding in both types of tanks caused a greater need for shear force, 13.53 N (single) and 13.43 N (multiple). The water holding capacity (WHC) of the poultry breast was higher in severe scalding (64.12 %) and lower in the soft (62.76 %).The protein content was lower with the simple/soft scald (21.78 %) and the larger with the multiple/soft (22.20 %). Soft scald with multi-stage tank allows higher slaughter speed and chicken meat with better quality and yield, with no surface cooking.