A pairwise comparison of the meat quality between fresh and frozen/thawed Musculus iliofibularis was conducted.
Thirty-two (16 left; 16 right) muscles were collected and allocated to two treatments: fresh and frozen/
thawed. Frozen vacuum-packed samples were stored for 1 month at –20 °C before thawing. The fresh
samples had higher pH (Pb0.05), water binding capacity (Pb0.05), CIE L* (Pb0.0001), CIE a* (Pb0.05) and
Chroma values (Pb0.05) than the frozen/thawed samples, indicating the fresh samples were bright red in appearance
and had minimal exudate. The frozen/thawed samples lost 5.09±0.21% moisture during thawing
and had a greater drip loss (Pb0.0001) and shear force (Pb0.001). No differences were obtained with regard
to cooking loss, CIE b*, hue and TBARS. Protein oxidation (mM carbonyls/mg protein) was lower (Pb0.05) in
the frozen/thawed samples, which was attributed to the higher (Pb0.0001) protein concentration negating
the higher (Pb0.001) carbonyl content. Industrial freezing and thawing regimes negatively affected the quality
of ostrich meat.