Emerging breast-muscle defects demand their own poultry quality strategy

The breast-muscle myopathies known as Spaghetti Meat and Gaping are distinct technological problems and should not be conflated with the familiar Wooden Breast defect. A new review brings together evidence on both abnormalities in broilers and their consequences for breast-meat quality, yield and marketability. Spaghetti Meat affects the Pectoralis major: fibres weaken and separate, producing a stringy, mushy structure. Gaping occurs in the Pectoralis minor and appears as separations between fibre bundles and tears near tendons. The review notes that reported Spaghetti Meat incidence varies greatly between studies, while comparable data series for Gaping are still limited. For processors, the issue extends beyond fillet appearance. Loss of structural integrity, lower protein solubility and poorer water-holding can affect cutting, portioning, formed products and perceived quality. A sorting system that only removes visually extreme product may therefore intervene too late in some production flows. The review does not claim a single remedy. It identifies improvements in management, nutrition and processing as short-term priorities, alongside a better understanding of genetics in the longer term. Practically, these defects should be incorporated into the data system linking genetics, growth, slaughter, cutting and product destination—not treated simply as line loss.