ABSTRACT
While different instrumentation has been extensively used at a laboratory level in order to provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying poultry quality, use of this knowledge for evaluating poultry quality at an industrial level is still quite limited. The enhanced international trade of poultry meat, as well as the growing segmentation of the poultry meat market, is accompanied by increased consumer interest in the authenticity and organoleptic characteristics of products marketed under quality labels (geographical origin, breed within a species, production system), and increased requirement from the processing industry as regards the status of meat (ageing, previous freezing, irradiation, undesirable residues, trace elements). As a result, it is now of high importance to develop new methods so that the origin of meat and its freshness can be guaranteed (Baéza et al., 2004).
