Relationships between electrical impedance and fluid losses from turkey breast meat

Abstract. Breast muscles were removed from turkeys soon after slaughter. The meat quality was judged to be normal with little or no evidence of the pale, soft, exudative (PSE) condition. Fluid losses the day after slaughter were 0.50 SD 0.35 %. The most reliable predictor of fluid losses was resistance: r = –0.37 at 120 kHz, –0.30 at 1 Hz and –0.34 at 10 kHz (P < 0.001, n = 156). Between 1 and 4 days post-mortem, the mean drip loss from slices of turkey meat in a cooler was 4.31 SD 1.91%. Resistance was correlated with cooler drip loss: r = –0.61 at 120 Hz, –0.51 at 1 kHz and –0.62 at 10 kHz (P < 0.001, n = 45).