Poultry colour stability points to post-mortem muscle biology

Colour stability in chicken breast cannot be explained by pH, pigments and oxygen alone. A new paper identifies evidence of ferroptosis in the Pectoralis major muscle of yellow-feathered broilers during the post-mortem period. Ferroptosis is a form of cell damage associated with iron-dependent lipid oxidation. The study observed increased membrane-lipid oxidation alongside changes in antioxidant-system markers and mitochondrial structure.