Improving poultry meat quality

Recent years have seen a rise in the number of consumers wishing to know more about the journey their food takes from farm to fork. Consumer expectations of the sensory and nutritional qualities of food products have increased as a result. Poultry producers and processors must balance these quality parameters with other requirements such as yield and animal welfare.

Improving poultry meat quality addresses the wealth of recent research on the genetic and environmental factors affecting the development of quality traits in poultry meat and their potential implications for breeding, husbandry and postharvest processing. This collection also reviews recent advances in understanding colour, texture and flavour development in poultry meat.

A particular focus is coverage of key poultry myopathies associated with modern broiler production such as white striping, wooden breast and pale soft exudative meat. The book considers their causes, impacts on meat quality and how these defects can be prevented or overcome.

Part 1 Poultry muscle development and meat quality
1.Advances in understanding the development and morphology of the poultry breast muscle: impact on meat quality: Sandra G. Velleman, The Ohio State University, USA;
2.Understanding the genetics of poultry muscle development: Wen Luo, Qinghua Nie and Xiquan Zhang, South China Agricultural University, China;
3.Nutritional strategies and management practices to improve poultry meat quality: Marco Zampiga and Federico Sirri, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Italy;

Part 2 Individual quality attributes: sensory, nutrition and health
4.Advances in understanding color development in poultry meat: Ranjith Ramanathan and Frank Kiyimba, Oklahoma State University, USA; Surendranath Suman, University of Kentucky, USA; and Gretchen Mafi, Oklahoma State University, USA;
5.Understanding texture development in poultry meat: Clay J. Maynard and Casey M. Owens, University of Arkansas, USA;
6.Advances in understanding flavour development in poultry meat: Dinesh D. Jayasena, Uva Wellassa University, Sri Lanka; and Cheorun Jo, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea;

Part 3 Poultry myopathies and shelf life
7.Breast meat abnormalities associated with ischaemic necrosis: dorsal cranial myopathy and deep pectoral myopathy: Liris Kindlein, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil;
8.Quality defects associated with poultry muscle development: pale, soft and exudative meat: Giulia Baldi, Francesca Soglia and Massimiliano Petracci, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Italy;
9.Quality defects associated with poultry muscle development: white striping: Yuwares Malila, Krittaporn V. Thanatsang and Yanee Srimarut, National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Thailand;
10.Quality defects associated with poultry muscle development: wooden breast: Martina Bordini, Francesca Soglia, Martina Zappaterra, Adele Meluzzi and Massimiliano Petracci, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Italy;
11.Quality defects associated with poultry muscle development: spaghetti meat: Giulia Tasoniero and Brian Bowker, USDA-ARS, USA;
12.Factors affecting shelf life of poultry meat: Alberto González-Mohíno and Mario Estévez, Universidad de Extremadura, Spain;