The Influence of Refrigeration Method and Maturation Time in Broiler Meat Quality Marius M. CIOBANU*, Roxana LAZĂR, Emanuiel C. DIACONU, Nicoleta GĂINĂ (DIACONU), Paul C. BOIŞTEANU Department of Fundamental Sciences in Animal Husbandry, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Iaşi, 3 Mihail Sadoveanu Alley, 700490Iaşi, Romania; *Corresponding author, email: mar.ciobanu@yahoo.com Bulletin UASVM Animal Science and Biotechnologies 71(2) / 2014, Print ISSN 1843-5262; Electronic ISSN 1843-536X DOI:10.15835/buasvmcn-asb:10323 Abstract Consumer acceptability of broiler meat depends on its tenderness and appearance, main cause of incidence hardness broiler meat cutting and boning the carcass before the completion of rigor mortis. Thus, to prevent apparition of rough meat literature describes a number of studies that focused on ϐinding the optimum aging time. Prior to cutting and boning, to obtain juicy meat is needed to apply an early maturation period ranging between 4-6 h. Meat color was expressed by tristim spectral coordinates L*, a*, b* colour space in CIEL* a* b* (AMSA). To determine the force to Warner Bratzler was used texture-meter single bladed TA Instruments Lioyd plus 1 KN. Descriptive analysis of meat quality parameters showed lower values for carcass chilling in drafts submitted for pH, L*, a*, b* and WBSF signiϐicant differences (P≤0.05) were recorded for pH, brightness and cooking losses. The curing time signiϐicantly inϐluenced (P≤0.05) analyzed parameters. Acidity of meat, coordinate complementary colors red-green (a*) and yellow-blue (b*) and meat tenderness was assessed by a inverse relationship with increasing aging time. The results described a negative correlation of losses by cooking refrigeration and maturation of acidity, coordinate complementary colors yellow-blue and Warner Bratzler shear force. The main negative effects of meat maturation were open colored pectoral muscle and increase losses by boiling. Keywords: chicken, maturation, refrigeration. INTRODUCTION Consumer acceptability of broiler meat de- pends on its tenderness and appearance, main cause of incidence hardness broiler meat cutting and boning the carcass before the completion of rigor mortis (Fletcher, 2002). Thus, to prevent apparition of rough meat literature describes a number of studies that focused on ϐinding the optimum aging time. Prior to cutting and boning, to obtain juicy meat is needed to apply an early maturation period ranging between 4-6 h (Young, 1997; Northcutt et al., 2001; Liu et al., 2004). Maturation of carcasses is expensive because of the space required for storage and energy costs. Therefore, many processors prefer application immediately after chilling, the cutting and boning meat process that takes place in 0.5-0.83 h for cooling carcasses by immersing them in water (Veerkamp, 1990) and 1.5-2.5 h for cooling systems in air stream (James et al., 2006). To obtain an optimum maturity processors, stored carcasses at refrigeration temperature (0-4°C) for another 2.5-4.5 h prior to the cutting and boning (Sams, 2002). Previous studies have shown that high tempe- ratures and slow cooling rates may accelerate post-mortem glycolysis and consequently the ϐinal texture of the meat, which means that its functional properties (Papinaho and Fletcher, 1996; McKee and Sams, 1998; Skarovsky and Sams, 1999; Alvarado and Sams, 2002). However there is little information in the lite- rature on comparing functionality broiler carca- sses cut ϐillets, boneless prematurely and cooled