Fig. 1illustrates the changes in peroxide value (PV) in chicken
leg and breast meat during frozen storage at 18C for 6 months.
In leg meat, the mean PV increased from 1.66 to 2.52 meq perox-ides/kg lipid after 2 months of storage and decreased thereafter
to 0.51 after 6 months of storage. In breast meat, PV increased from
2.63 to 5.91 meq peroxides/kg lipid after 3 months of storage and
decreased thereafter to 2.02 after 6 months of storage. The increase
was probably due to the faster rate of formation of peroxides dur-ing months 1, 2 and 3 of storage than degradation of peroxides into
secondary oxidation products. The degradation of peroxides re-sulted in a decrease in leg and breast meat after 2 and 3 months
of storage, respectively. Similar increases (from 2.69 to 5.45 meq/
kg) and thereafter decreases (from 5.45 to 3.2 meq/kg) in PV over
time were found byTeets and Were (2008)in salted raw minced
chicken breast meat during frozen storage. In contrast, increases
in PV of fatty fish during prolonged frozen storage for 13 months
at20C and30C have been reported byBaron, Kj ærsgård,
Jessen, and Jacobsen (2007)