Post-mortem changes in chicken muscle

This paper details the post-mortem changes that take place in the muscular tissue of poultry and the consequences of these on the resulting meat quality at the point of consumption. The history of the development of the modern meat-type chicken, the form and function of its muscles, the factors that determine muscle growth and their effects on meat quality are all described. Past studies tend to have been concentrated on the processes occurring in mammalian tissue and those mainly on beef, with little attention being directed at the changes taking place in poultry muscle. Tn this context the view that modern broilers grow "at the edge of what is metabolically possible" is important. This hypothesis owes its origin to the fact that muscle, and thus protein, accretion is accomplished through a dynamic equilibrium between synthesis and degradation. Evidence is provided to show that the muscle cell reaches a certain maximum synthesis capacity, to grow beyond which requires it to decrease its rate of degradation. This property is possibly of considerable influence in meat ageing and forms the basis for the proposition that the breast muscle of poultry is especially suited to study the effects of post-mortem proteolytic degradation on meat ageing and product quality.