Table 4 Effects of NaCl concentration on CIE L*, CIE a*, CIE b*, and rNIC in cooked ground chicken breasts

NaCl concentrations¹	Dependent variables
NaCl concentrations¹	CIE L*	CIE a*	CIE b*	rNIC
0%	80.99^A	3.67^A	9.04^A	1.007^B
1%	78.19^B	4.02^A	8.20^C	1.009^A
2%	76.44^C	3.83^A	8.18^C	1.008^B
3%	75.35^D	2.60^B	8.70^B	1.003^C
(SE)	(0.41)	(0.33)	(0.35)	(0.0013)

¹ All raw ground meats were salted (0, 1, 2, and 3% NaCl, respectively) and stored for 7 d before being cooked.
^A-D Means within a column with different superscript letters are significantly different (p<0.05).
CIE L*, lightness; CIE a*, redness; CIE b*, yellowness; rNIC, reflectance estimator of nicotinamide hemochrome (%R537 nm/%R553 nm); SE, standard error.