The sensory characteristics of poultry products are crucial in defining their quality and widely influence consumer choices. Even though the scientific literature clearly indicates that for muscle foods the sensory profile is relevant in purchase decisions and overall acceptability, sensory evaluation has often been underestimated and considered complementary to instrumental and/or chemical assessments. Sensory analysis includes different types of validated tests (discriminative, descriptive, and affective), applied depending on the purpose of the research study, requiring special attention in the sample preparation phase, in particular for nonhomogeneous products such as poultry meat, requiring reproducible cutting, cooking and presentation to the tasters. The aim of this paper is to review, critically assess and discuss sensory methods, standardized procedures and sample preparation tailored for chicken meat, through the literature from 2000 to 2023, with a section dedicated to ethical aspects that must be carefully considered when designing a sensory protocol. The target readers are both the research and the business communities, as the information can be widely applied for quality control, to develop new food products, to understand or drive preferences or, for example, to assess potential sensory differences among chickens fed with different diets. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this review represents a useful first guide for those approaching the sensory analysis of chicken meat.

This study aimed to investigate consumer sensory profiles and liking of Parmigiano Reggiano PDO cheese produced with milk from cows reared indoors and fed with different forage sources, i.e., dry hay and fresh forage. Two cheese samples were tested by 119 Italian subjects, following a protocol that included a Check-All-That-Apply method to assess the sensory profile, a Just-About-Right scale to evaluate the adequacy of attributes, and questions on liking (9-point hedonic scale). A questionnaire related to personal information and consumption habits was also submitted. The color of the two samples, based on image analysis, was different: the sample produced with milk from the dairy cows fed fresh forage had a higher intensity of yellow than the other; they were also described differently (p ≤ 0.05) by participants in the consumer test. Indeed, Parmigiano Reggiano produced with milk from the cows that were fed dry hay was mainly characterized by a “fresh milk” and “solubility”, while the sample produced with milk from cows fed fresh forage was described as “yellow”, “seasoned”, “pungent”, and with a “cheese crust” flavor. Even if no significant differences were observed between the two samples in terms of liking (p ≤ 0.05), the attribute “graininess” showed a great impact on liking ratings together with “yellow” (p ≤ 0.05), apparently corresponding to a specific expectation regarding the intensity of these attributes. Data were also analyzed according to the gender of consumers, highlighting that for women, the adequacy of “fresh milk”, “sweet”, and “graininess” greatly impacted liking for the cheese from cows fed dry hay.

Using a multi-analytical approach, this investigation characterized Parmigiano Reggiano PDO cheese produced with milk from dairy cows fed different diets. Ten samples of Parmigiano Reggiano PDO cheese, aged for 24 months, were produced with milk from dairy cows fed only dry hay (P-DH; N = 6) or a diet with part of the dry hay replaced with fresh herbage (P-FF; N = 4). Instrumental (Flash GC-FID) analysis of the volatile fraction, image analyses, and sensory quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA^®) were carried out. The Parmigiano Reggiano cheese belonging to the P-FF group showed a higher intensity of yellow than P-DH for both sensory and image analyses. Regarding the volatile profiles, no differences were observed related to the two experimental groups, while sensory analyses allowed for some discrimination, in particular color and aroma attributes. Instrumental and sensory characterization can be used to obtain a unique analytical profile for Parmigiano Reggiano PDO cheeses produced with milk from dairy cows fed different forage sources and help to define the quality and authenticity of this typical high-value food product.

Instrumental color measurement is widely used in the poultry industry to ensure product uniformity and to provide rapid evaluation of meat quality. The objective of this study was to evaluate color measurements of broiler breast meat obtained using a conventional tristimulus colorimeter Minolta CR-400 Chroma Meter (Minolta Italia S.p.A., Milan, Italy) and a portable Nix Spectro 2 Color Sensor (NIX Sensor Ltd., Hamilton, ON, Canada), and to investigate the relationships between instrument-derived color parameters and key meat quality traits under commercial processing conditions. The Pectoralis major muscles from three homogeneous flocks of Ross 308 broilers were analyzed. In a preliminary screening (n = 450 fillets), samples were classified according to Minolta lightness (L*) values into pale, normal and dark groups. Then 90 fillets per color group were selected and color using both instruments, ultimate pH, drip loss, and cooking loss, were measured. Moisture content, lipid (Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances) and protein oxidation (carbonyl content) were also determined in 24 breasts per group. The Nix Spectro 2 reproduced the separation among color groups originally defined according to Minolta CR-400 L* values. Pale fillets exhibited higher lightness, oxidative indicators, drip and cooking losses and lower pH compared with normal and dark samples. Lightness measured by the two instruments was very strongly correlated (ρ = +0.90; P< 0.001), whereas strong correlations were observed for redness (ρ = +0.66; P< 0.001) and yellowness (ρ = +0.51; P< 0.001). For both devices, L* was strongly negatively correlated with pH and positively correlated with drip and cooking losses (P< 0.001), confirming the association between lightness and water holding capacity. Although absolute color values differed between instruments, the Nix Spectro 2 consistently reproduced relative color variation and its relationships with technological properties of the breast meat. In conclusion the Nix Spectro 2 represents a promising low-cost tool for assessing relative color variation in research and commercial poultry applications.

Considering the remarkable implications exerted by the occurrence of wooden breast (WB) abnormality on meat tenderness and marketability, the poultry processing industry demands the implementation of postmortem procedures that can improve the textural traits of chicken breasts affected by this defect. Within this scenario, this study aimed at exploring the effectiveness of high-intensity ultrasonication (HIU) in attenuating the toughness of WB fillets and evaluating its effects on the main technological properties and quality characteristics of chicken breast meat. Overall outcomes showed that HIU significantly reduced (P<0.01) the compression forces of both unaffected and WB raw meat without negatively affecting the main meat quality traits and technological properties, such as color and water holding capacity. The significant (P<0.05) increase in myofibrillar fragmentation index (MFI) observed in unaffected fillets might hint at an alteration of myofibril integrity following the mechanical action of ultrasonic waves. However, despite the effectiveness of HIUin improving the textural traits of raw WB meat, overall outcomes obtained through western blot and MFI analyses suggested that HIU did not remarkably alter the microstructure of myopathic muscles. The myodegenerative lesions typically occurring in WB muscles may have partially disguised the mechanical effects of ultrasonic waves on muscle cells’ structures, making the elucidation of the mechanisms that lead to the softening of WB meat particularly complex.