Effect of marination and tumbling in calcium chloride and lactic acid solution on quality of spent hen meat

Combination of calcium chloride and lactic acid treatments were tried to improve tenderness and other qualities of spenthen meat. Legand breastcuts of spenthenswere chilledfor 20 hours at 4±1°C and were marinated or marinated + tumbled in 0.3M calcium chloride (CaCl₂) + 0.5% lactic acid (LA) solution for 2 hours. In general. both marination or marination + tumbling treatments caused significant (P<0.05) reduction in pH, water holding capacity, shear force value and microbial counts, whereas, moisture, ash and calcium content of treated samples were significantly (P<0.05) higher than control. No significant differences were observed for salt soluble and water soluble proteins. Results revealed that sensory and microbial qualities of spent hen meat can be improved by treating chilled cuts with combination of CaCI₂ + LA solution.