The determination of some carcass characteristics of a group frozen white layer spent hens produced in Afyonkarahi̇sar

Laying hens are sent to slaughter as spent hen after about a year production period. The spent hens are of a lower quality by-product. Almost all of the spent hen carcasses are exported to some African and Asian countries. Afyonkarahisar province is one of the major egg producing centers in our country. A modern poultry slaughterhouse established in this province slaughters the spent hens and exports them. The aim of this work to determine the some characteristic of a group carcass produced in slaughterhouse in Afyonkarahisar. The study material of this thesis is spent hen carcasses cut, cleaned and frozen in slaughterhouse in Aftonkarahisar. By pre-interviews with slaughterhouse, 24 pieces carcasses has been taken cut from 4 different days (24 pieces from 4 party, total 96 carcasses). Wet plucking applied to the carcass, cooling (+4ºC) were done in air circulating medium by 12 hours, and then shocked for 12 hours at -40 ºC. The shocked carcasses were stored at -18 ºC for about one month. The carcasses were brought to Antalya making the heat insulation by the firm. Frozen carcasses were dissolved refrigerator environment (+4ºC) by keeping 24 hours and necessary measurements are made. Primarily, external quality assessment of carcasses carried out. For this purpose, bruises were scored in different parts of the carcass. Then dissolved carcasses were weighted and cut in to parts. The absolute and relative (to carcass weight) weights of carcass parts and, breast and leg muscle. In addition, the color of skin and meat were determined by colorimeters Minolta (CR 400). According to CIE (1976), 3 main color parameters (L*,a*, b*) were measured. Whether there were differences between the four groups was demonstrated by analysis of variance. The average thawed carcass weight was 1178,29 g. As relative weights, breast was % 24,48, leg was % 29,28, wing was % 10,81, neck was % 6,91, back was % 25,26 and fat pad was % 2,32'dir. The relative of breast and leg muscle to carcass weight were % 14,25 and 18,10, resp. It is concluded that the valuable portion as breast and breast muscle was low according to broiler chicken. We can say that color values of spent hen carcass and meat similar to values of broiler chicken carcass. Keywords: White layer, spent hen, carcass parts, breast mucle.