A note on meat quality traits of pheasants ()

Peter Hofbauer (1) , Frans J. M. Smulders (1) , Miroslav Vodnansky (2) , Peter Paulsen (1) , Waleed R. El-Ghareeb (3)

1 University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
2 Central European Institut for Wildlife Ecology
3 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

Meat yield, proximate composition, pH and drip loss of breast and thigh muscles were studied in 29 hunted male and 32 slaughtered female pheasants. In the breast muscles of additional 14 hunted male pheasants, colour, cooking loss and shear force were measured. Weight of muscles of hunted male pheasants was higher than that of slaughtered females, but the percentages of breast and thigh muscles relative to the dressed carcass did not differ. Average protein concentrations in lean muscles were above 22%, and average fat was below 1.2%. In breast muscles, pH was lower than in thigh (ca. 5.6 vs. 6.0), and, consequently, drip loss was higher (2.2-3.0% vs. 1.0-1.5%). Colour of breast muscles was characterised by L*a*b* values of about 55, 4 and 8-9, respectively. The shear force of breast muscles was about 30 N/cm.

Mots clés: Pheasant meat; Proximate composition; Drip loss; pH; Cooking loss; Colour

Peter Hofbauer, Frans J. M. Smulders, Miroslav Vodnansky, Peter Paulsen, Waleed R. El-Ghareeb. A note on meat quality traits of pheasants (). European Journal of Wildlife Research, 2010, 56 (5), pp.809-813. ⟨10.1007/s10344-010-0396-7⟩. ⟨hal-00593886⟩