THE MEULLENET‐OWENS RAZOR SHEAR (MORS) FOR PREDICTING POULTRY MEAT TENDERNESS: ITS APPLICATIONS AND OPTIMIZATION

The Meullenet-Owens Razor Shear (MORS), recently developed for the assessment of poultry meat tenderness, is a reliable instrumental method. Three different studies were conducted to (1) investigate the adaptation of MORS to an Instron InSpec 2200 tester (InSpec); (2) optimize the number of replications necessary per fillet to obtain a reliable instrumental tenderness mean; and (3) test the efficacy of a blunt version of MORS (BMORS). In study 1, the tenderness of 157 cooked broiler breast fillets was predicted by the MORS performed with both a texture analyzer (MORS standard) and InSpec. The correlation coefficient of 0.95 was reported for the MORS energy obtained from the both tests, indicating that the MORS performed with an InSpec is equivalent to that performed on the more expensive texture analyzer. In study 2, eight shears were taken on each cooked fillet (101 fillets) to determine a recommended number of shears per fillet for the MORS. The composite hypothesis test was conducted considering the average of 8 shears as Y (representative estimated tenderness of a fillet) and the average of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 as X (potentials for recommended number of shears). The results showed that the optimal number of replications of the MORS for a reliable estimate of tenderness to be four shears or greater per fillet. A blunt version of MORS (BMORS) was introduced in study 3. A total of 288 broilers (576 fillets) were deboned at eight different postmortem deboning times. Tenderness of cooked fillets was assessed by both the MORS and BMORS on the same individual fillets. Both methods were equivalent in performance for predicting broiler breast meat tenderness, giving a correlation coefficient of 0.99 with all instrumental parameters obtained from both methods. Tenderness intensity perceived by consumers was slightly more highly correlated to BMORS energy (r = −0.90) than MORS energy (r = −0.87). The BMORS was recommended to use especially for tough meat because of its better discrimination ability among tough meat. Overall, both the MORS and BMORS were proven to be reliable predictors for broiler breast meat tenderness. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The incidence of tough meat has been a major issue the poultry industry faces. Therefore, the need to ensure consumer acceptance and the increased recognition of the importance of tenderness has led to the development of instrumental methods for monitoring meat tenderness. To date, a great deal of efforts has been devoted to the development of such instrumental methods. One promising method is the Meullenet-Owens Razor Shear (MORS). The method has gained in popularity for predicting poultry meat tenderness because of its high reliability as well as simplicity compared with that of other industry standards (Warner-Bratzler shear or Allo-Kramer shear). The MORS is not only as reliable as the industry standards, but also more rapid because of the elimination of the sample cutting steps. The application of the MORS will be of benefit to the poultry industry as it could significantly save labor or time to implement for routine quality control.