Effects of Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) Injection at Different Times post-mortem on Meat of Spent Layers

OMOJOLA, A. B., 2007. Effects of calcium chloride (CaCl2) injection at different time's post-mortem on meat of spent layers. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 13: 131-139 The effect of post-mortem calcium chloride injection at different time was investigated on thigh meat of eighteen spent layers. The thirty-six thighs weighing between 81.16 and 86.21 g were randomly assigned to four treatments. The thigh muscles were injected with 0.1 M calcium chloride (10 % w/w) at 0, 1, 12 and 24 h post-mortem representing treatments 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The samples were subsequently weighed and aged at-2 oC for 3 days. Tenderness was evaluated by Waner Braztter shear force (WBSF) machine and sensory panel evaluation. Drip loss and cooking losses were also investigated. WBSF values were not significantly diffirent between samples injected at 12 and 24 h post-mortem while the least (P<0.05) WBSF values were obtained in samples injected 1 h post-mortem. Injection of samples with CaCl2 solution improved tenderness as the non-injected samples had the highest WBSF value. CaCl2 injection significantly (P<0.05) increased drip loss and as time postmortem in-creased the percent drip loss also increased. Cooking loss was not affected (P>0.05) by CaCl2 injection. The injection of CaCl2 at 1 h post mortem improved significantly the organleptic traits of the meat after ageing for 3 days while 24 h post mortem injection gave the least values for flavour, juiciness and ease of fragmentation. In terms of the overall acceptability, the panelist preferred samples injected at 1 and 12 h post mortem. Key words: Calcium chloride, spent layers, post-mortem, injection and organoleptic trait