A comprehensive study on effect of electrical stimulation on biophysical and biochemical parameters of spent hen meat using discriminant function analysis

The objective of this study was to assess the effect of electrical stimulation (ES) on breast and thigh muscles in spent hen. A total of 24 spent hens (White Leghorn) were slaughtered and split into two halves, each half was either treated with postmortem ES (150V) or was used as a non-stimulated (NS) control. Breast and thigh muscles were excised and analysed for biophysical, colour and sensory qualities after ageing for 24 h at 4 ± 1 ˚C. Biochemical parameters were recorded immediately (0h) and after 24h of ES. Biophysical parameters like water holding capacity (WHC), protein extractability, shear force value (SFV) and myofibre fragmentation index (MFI) of both types of muscles varied significantly with ES. Electrical stimulation significantly reduced the pH and glycogen content in both muscles and the thigh muscle showed a significantly higher pH and lower glycogen content than the breast muscle. No significance difference in metabolic rate (R-value) was observed between ES and NS thigh at 24 h. ES had no significant effect on colour and ES significantly improved the sensory value of both breast and thigh muscle. Canonical discriminant and Mahalanobis distance (D2) analysis of biophysical and biochemical parameters demonstrated that the effect of electrical stimulation was comparatively more in thigh muscle than breast with an ageing period of 24 h.