Abstract: To observe the effect of fasting time on water holding capacity and tenderness of chicken during the early postmortem period, Sanhuang chickens were fasted for 0, 8, 16 or 24 h, respectively before bleeding, and analyses of drip loss, cooking loss, pressure loss, protein solubility, shear force values and glycogen, lactic acid and pH of chicken breast meat were performed within 5 h postmortem. The results showed that glycogen content (P＜0.05) and pH values decreased with prolonged fasting time, and the content of glycogen and pH were positively correlated with postmortem time interval, but lactic acid content had negative correlation with postmortem time. During the early postmortem period, the water-holding capacity of chicken muscle was significantly (P＜0.05) affected by pH value and little affected by protein solubility. Fasting led to a tendency to increase in shear force value and various treatment groups did not differ significantly. Compared with the control group, fasting for 8 h and 16 h could increase the water-holding capacity of chicken meat.

Key words: fasting, rigor mortis, water-holding capacity, tenderness, energy