Water-spraying forced ventilation during holding improves the water holding capacity, impedance, and microstructure of breast meat from summer-transported broiler chickens

Abstract Heat stress is a broiler welfare issue and economic deficit to the broiler industry. Water atomizing with three-dimensional forced ventilation, a holding treatment after summer transport for broiler, has been proved to significantly improve water holding capacity of fresh meat. However, effectiveness of this treatment on water retention after freeze-thaw needs to be conducted. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess whether water atomizing with forced ventilation could increase freeze-thaw meat quality after birds slaughtering. Arbor Acres broiler (n = 105), undergoing 32°C ambient temperature transport, was randomly categorized into 3 treatments: 1) T group, which underwent 45-min transport without rest; 2) TR group, which underwent 45-min transport with 1-h rest; and the 3) TWFR group, which underwent 45-min transport followed by 15-min water atomizing with three-dimensional forced ventilation and 45-min rest. All birds were hot-deboned within 30-min postmortem. A total of 105 breast fillets were collected and split into halves, which left part fillets were kept in 4°C and for meat analysis, the other part fillets, marked with T-F, TR-F, and TWFR-F, were frozen (−18°C) for 1 mo and then thawed overnight for meat quality analysis. Regardless of fresh or frozen treatment among 3 groups, TWFR has the highest pH which was more than 6.01 (P