The use of sodium bicarbonate in poultry meat marination

The most common ingredients used in poultry marination are sodium chloride and sodium tripolyphosphate. Some few previous studied have been shown that sodium bicarbonate can be profitably used in poultry meat as alternative to phosphates. The aim of this study was to test the effect of different sodium bicarbonate levels (0 to 0.5%) on marination performances and meat quality properties. A total of 210 samples (cylindrical shape of 1×4 cm size) were obtained from an homogenous batch of 24h post mortem broiler breast meat (Cobb 500, females, 46 day-old, 2.48 kg). Samples were subjected to vacuum tumbling with a 12% water:meat ratio using 7 marinating solutions containing the same sodium chloride level (1.0% wt/wt on final product) and increasing concentrations from 0 to 0.5% of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3). pH and colour (L*a*b*) before and after marination and subsequent cooking as well as marinade uptake, drip loss, expressible moisture, cooking loss, moisture, yield and texture profile analysis were measured. Meat pH after marination increased with the increasing bicarbonate concentration by estimating an 0.17 pH units increase for 0.10% of bicarbonate addition. The greatest marinade uptake (11.4%) was observed in samples tumbled with 0.30% bicarbonate solution, while higher concentration (0.40 and 0.50%) evidenced significant (P<0.01) lower marinade uptake. Samples treated with bicarbonate concentration of above 0.30% had lower expressible moisture. Cooking losses showed a decreasing trend with the increase of bicarbonate level by estimating a 1.8% decrease for 0.10% of bicarbonate addition. As for meat colour, overall appearance of meat after marination and cooking was not modified by marination treatment. Irrespective of treatment level, the use of sodium bicarbonate was able to improve meat texture. In conclusion, this study showed the that sodium bicarbonate is a superior marinating agent and greater marination performances are obtained when using a concentration of at least 0.3%