Accelerated processing of chicken meat is always desirable if the quality of the product remains unchanged or improves compared to conventional processes.

In this context, the purpose of a recent study, carried out by a group of US researchers (Kawamura et al., 2025), was to evaluate the effects of sub-zero temperature saline cooling (SSC), with or without hot water spray (HWS), on the efficiency of the process and on the quality properties of the product.

For the experiment, eviscerated chicken carcasses were subjected to six different treatments.

The results show that the SSC process has shorter cooling times and more tender fillets than conventional methods (water immersion cooling, WIC). The HWS samples, on the other hand, show higher brightness values (or a partially cooked appearance) than the WIC and SSC samples.

Sensory analysis shows that fillets from the SSC-HWS carcass have higher hedonic scores than the WIC and WIC-HWS samples for flavour, juiciness, tenderness, palatability and general acceptance, with an intermediate score observed for the SSC product for tenderness and juiciness.

In the descriptive sensory analysis, the SSC, WIC and SSC-HWS fillets were found to be less intense with regard to the attributes of blood and cardboard odour compared to the WIC-HWS product.

In summary, the study allows us to conclude that the combination of SSC with HWS improves the tenderness and sensory characteristics of chicken meat compared to the conventional product, while SSC increases cooling efficiency.

Bibliography: K. Kawamura et al., Journal of Applied Poultry Research, 34, 2025, 100516