ELECTRICAL-STIMULATION IN POULTRY - A REVIEW AND EVALUATION

Although electrical stimulation has been studied and applied to industries for tenderization of red meat, the reports and data on poultry meat are very limited and inconclusive. This review presents the history of electrical stimulation, summarizes recent research in the poultry area, and discusses various electrical stimulation systems. Reported experimental results on electrical stimulation of poultry meat were not consistent and were even contradictory. Tenderness of electrically stimulated poultry meat was affected by electrical parameters, physical, physiological, and biochemical factors, and experimental procedures. The optimal electrical parameters, electrical properties of poultry meat, and biochemical and physiological responses of poultry nerve and muscle systems to electrical stimulation are not known.