CAUSES OF GREENING OF UNEVISCERATED POULTRY CARCASES DURING STORAGE

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Abstract
SUMMARY: The greening of uneviscerated poultry carcases stored at 15° is due to the production of hydrogen sulphide following multiplication of bacteria in the gut. The main groups present in the gut after death are faecal streptococci, coli‐aerogenes organisms, lactobacilli and clostridia, but their relative importance in causing greening has not yet been established. The hydrogen sulphide diffuses from the gut into the muscle tissue and there reacts with the haem pigments of blood and muscle to form derivatives which microspectroscopically are indistinguishable from sulphaemoglobin.The delay of greening at lower storage temperatures is consistent with this view; and it is suggested that mechanically plucked birds green more rapidly over the ribs than hand plucked ones because the shaking distributes bacteria from the caecum along the gut.