Acceptance of Fresh Chicken Meat Presented Under Three Light Sources

The effect of using incandescent (INC), fluorescent (FL), and metal halide (MH) light sources on consumer preference of three different chicken cuts was investigated. For whole chicken and skinless thigh meat, INC was the preferred light source (P < 0.05). For the skinless breast meat, FL light was significantly preferred over MH but not over INC. Panelists indicated that they would buy thigh meat presented under INC and MH light but not under FL. Light reflectance data indicated that the reason was a lack of red light in the bulb output of FL light.