other treatments (T1, T2 and T4; Table 4). Moreover, the amount of
defects of these muscles (T3) was significantly lower (pb0.05) than
the scores obtained for T1, T2 and T5, but similar to T4. The intensity
and amount of defects described for the injected samples are related
to the tissue disruption induced by the injector needles. However, for
T3 samples (also injected), both defects were minimized. The explanation
for that could be the higher protein extraction induced by
the combination of NaCl and STPP and the consequent gel-like structure
formed during cooking (showed in Fig. 4e). Conversely, the
incorporation of whey proteins did not produce this mending effect
on tissue structure