Broiler quality needs a connected view from live bird to post-mortem conversion

A recent review of broiler-meat quality brings together areas that operational practice often treats separately: genetics, feeding, health, environment, pre-slaughter handling and post-mortem conversion. It places muscle energy metabolism at slaughter at the centre of that chain. Glycogen reserves, mitochondrial function, oxidative balance, calcium regulation and proteolytic systems affect the rate of pH decline and, in turn, colour, water-holding capacity, texture, tenderness, flavour and quality defects.

The paper’s contribution is not a new processing specification but an integrative framework. It argues that final outcomes cannot reliably be explained by one isolated variable. A change in ventilation, stocking density, growth rate, feed formulation or logistics can alter the bird’s metabolic state; the consequences then become visible in cutting, packaging and cooking yield.

For plants and integrated businesses, the relevance lies in connecting welfare, production data and processing technology. The authors describe the potential of combining omics approaches with sensors and operational records to anticipate risks rather than merely classifying them after a defect has appeared. This includes familiar challenges such as PSE, DFD, woody breast, white striping, oxidation and inconsistent tenderness.

The practical conclusion is straightforward: carcass quality neither begins in the chiller nor ends with a pH measurement. A robust assurance system should connect farm, transport, lairage, slaughter and post-mortem data with yield and sensory indicators. The review does not by itself prove that every predictive tool works under every commercial condition. It does, however, reinforce that effective quality control is a chain task, not an end-of-line correction.