Abstract: In this experiment , 40-day-old to 3-month-old French quail were randomly divided into 3 groups (equal numbers of males and females in each group). One group as control was not given any treatment. The two others were as new or old procedure group (NPG or OPG). Tenderness of NPG and OPG was detected. Water, pH, diameter of muscle fibre, sarcomere length and content of proline of each group were also determinded. At the same time, obsevation on histomorphology was made. The results showed that WB values, sensory panel scores of NPG were significantly lower and higher than those of OPG respectively. The higher water content was maintained, pH and sarcomere length were in-cresed, content of proline was decresed, diameter of muscle fibre and tissue had the some change in NPG. This study demonstrated that NPG was superior to OPG in improving the tenderness of quail meat.

Key words: Quail Tenderness Processing procedure