Table 2.

Effects of heat stress temperature and exposure time on the pH of pectoralis major muscles at 5 min to 24 h postmortem¹⁾ (n = 12)

Postmortem time	Heat stress temperature (°C)					Heat stress time (h)			Significance
	Control	36	38	40	SE	1	2	SE	Temp	Ptime	Temp×Ptime
5 min	6.51	6.48	6.43	6.47	0.023–0.028	6.48	6.47	0.017–0.018	NS	**	**
1 h	6.36a	6.15c	6.27b	6.25b	0.020–0.024	6.25	6.27	0.015–0.016	**	-	-
2 h	6.17x	6.10w	6.13x	6.08x	0.022–0.027	6.12	6.12	0.016–0.018	NS	-	-
4 h	6.04ay	6.00abx	6.01ay	5.94by	0.020–0.019	5.99	6.00	0.014–0.015	**	-	-
24 h	5.95az	5.87aby	5.87abz	5.79bz	0.022–0.026	5.88	5.88	0.016–0.017	**	-	-

SE, standard error; Temp, HS temperature; Ptime, postmortem time; NS, no significance.

¹⁾The effect of HS time and the crossed effects of Temp×Time×Ptime and Time×Ptime were not significant (p>0.05).

^**p<0.01.

^a–cMeans in a row within different treatments with a different letter differ significantly.

^v–wMeans a line within different postmortem time with a different letter differ significantly.