High-pressure thawing of pork: Water holding capacity, protein denaturation and ultrastructure
Introduction
As the most commonly used method of storage, freezing has an important role in meat preservation and meat product processing, but the decreased quality of raw meat caused by freezing also results in significant economic losses (Coleen et al., 2012; Lagerstedt et al., 2008; Pietrasik et al., 2009). To minimize this problem, raw meat must be of higher quality, and the freezing and thawing process must be optimized (Huff-Lonergan et al., 2005; LeBail et al., 2002). A number of freezing processes have been studied, but the thawing of frozen meat has received less attention (Farag et al., 2009). The complex heat and mass transfer process, and the biological and physicochemical mechanism of the protein denaturation is not yet fully understood (Zhu et al., 2003).
In the 1990s, high-pressure thawing began to be applied to food. This thawing method had the advantage of a higher thawing rate, lower thawing losses and having little impact on food quality compared to other thawing methods (Angsupanich et al., 1998; Castro et al., 2017; Fuchigami et al., 1998a). The theoretical basis of high-pressure thawing considers the following two processes. First, from 0 to 210 MPa, the phase transition temperature of water decreases as pressure increases, dropping to −21 °C at 210 MPa. The temperature gap between frozen material and thawing material significantly increases due to freezing point depression. Plank's equation also shows that thawing time is inversely proportional to the temperature gap; therefore, high-pressure thawing can considerably improve the rate of thawing and shorten thawing time (Cheftel et al., 2000; Kalichevsky, 1995; Wu et al., 2017). Second, a decrease in the specific heat capacity and enthalpy of a heated ice-containing solution, as well as an increase in the thermal conductivity of ice at high pressure, can help improve the rates of high-pressure thawing (Knorr et al., 1998; Loc et al., 2014; Sun et al., 2013). High-pressure thawing involves three variables (temperature, time, pressure), which differ from the factors that influence traditional thawing. By regulating the three variables together, high-pressure thawing has the potential to improve the quality of food (Biniam et al., 2014; LeBail et al., 2002). Takai et al. (1991, pp. 1951–1955) studied high-pressure thawing of tuna and found that it can be done at <5 °C with a higher rate of thawing. However, the texture and color of the tuna was affected by the high-pressure thawing. These changes may have been associated with protein denaturation caused by the high pressure (Li et al., 2019; Takai et al., 1991, pp. 1951–1955). Deuchi and Hayashi (1992) found that 50 MPa was more suitable for thawing beef, as the influences on color and drip loss were relatively small. Zhao et al. (1998) compared the influence of high-pressure thawing and air thawing on ground beef quality and found that drip loss, cooking loss, shear force, and color did not change significantly at 210 MPa, showing that high-pressure thawing of beef may be beneficial. Preliminary investigations have been done of the influence of high-pressure thawing on water retention, color, structure and other quality aspects of fish, shellfish, strawberries and other foods (Eshtiaghi et al., 1996; Fuchigami et al., 1998b; Lakshmanan, 2003). These studies showed that the changes in the quality of food processed with high-pressure thawing were probably due to a combination of factors and depended on the original composition of the food (Galazka, 1995; Zhu et al., 2003).
Per capita pork production and consumption accounted for >50% of total meat production and consumption in China, indicating that pork continues to be a primary source of meat, although African Swine Fever may change these numbers. However, this may also lead to the use of more imported frozen meat. Studies of high-pressure thawing have mainly focused on fish, shellfish and other seafood. High-pressure thawing has been used, particularly in Japan, to thaw fish. The objective of the present study was to learn more about the application of this technology to pork.
Section snippets
Materials
Porcine longissimus dorsi (PLD) muscle (from the 12th thoracic vertebra to the 5th lumbar vertebra) was removed from slaughtered pig carcasses (slaughter methods: electrical stunning, crossbreed of Duroc, Landrace and Yorkshire at ~6 months with a live weight of 100 ± 5 kg) was obtained from a local market (Nanjing, Jiangsu, China) and chilled at 4 °C for 24 h, in accordance with European Union regulation (Choi et al., 2016). The longissimus dorsi muscles were trimmed of visible fat and
Thawing loss
Thawing loss is an important economic indicator for the meat industry. The results (Table 1) showed that thawing loss differed among the different thawing pressures; the thawing loss at 70 and 140 MPa was significantly lower than it was at 210 MPa and water thawing (P < 0.05). These results were consistent with those reported in previous studies (Chourt et al., 1995; Rouillè et al., 2002). The reason may be due to the increased speed at which the ice crystals melted. The dwell time of the mass
Conclusions
High-pressure thawing at 70, 140 and 210 MPa significantly shortened the thawing time of pork but affected its water holding capacity, protein properties and ultrastructure. The results of the present study suggested that pork thawed at 140 MPa showed the lowest thawing loss compared to other means of thawing with similar environmental conditions. Protein denaturation increased with the increases in pressure, and the endothermal peak of actin disappeared in the 210 MPa group. At the same time,
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Fei Jia: Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. Yun Jing: Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation. Ruitong Dai: Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration. Xingmin Li: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Baocai Xu: Writing - review & editing, Validation.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest with respect to the study described in this manuscript.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge research grants from the National 13th Five-Year Science and Technology Support Plan of China (Grant No. 2016YFD0401504) and the Beijing Innovation Consortium of Agricultural Research System (BAIC04-2019).
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