Effects of age, sex, and duration of postmortem aging on percentage yield of parts from broiler chicken carcasses

The objective of this study was to evaluate effects of age, sex, and postmortem carcass aging duration on parts yield from broiler chickens. Two hundred twenty-four mixed-sex broilers were reared under commercial-like conditions for various periods between 37 and 51 d, slaughtered, packed in ice, and then aged for 0, 2, 4, or 6 h. Mean percentage yield of thighs, drumsticks, forequarters, wings, breasts, and filets were evaluated for each rearing period, sex, and postmortem aging duration. Yield of meatier parts such as thighs, forequarters, breasts, and filets increased with birds' ages. Female carcasses produced higher percentage yields of forequarters, breasts, and filers but lower yields of drumsticks. Carcasses aged 2 h or more postmortem tended to have lower yields of forequarters, breasts, and drumsticks than did carcasses aged for shorter durations. No statistically significant interactions among age, sex, or postmortem aging duration that affected yield of parts were detected. This information is useful to integrated poultry firms wishing to optimize yield of the most commercially valuable parts.