Effects of freeze-thaw cycles of Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) subjected to radio frequency tempering on melanosis and quality

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of different tempering methods and freeze-thaw cycles on melanosis and quality parameters of pacific white shrimp. Frozen pacific white shrimps tempered with radio frequency tempering (RFT) were compared to that in water tempering (WT) and refrigerator tempering (RT) in terms of temper loss, total volatile base nitrogen (TVBN), polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, melanosis, total sulfhydryl contents, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and texture properties after 0, 1, 3, 5 freeze-thaw cycles. Results showed that crushed ice was effective as an effective surrounding medium for six layers of frozen shrimp reaching −2 °C within 6 min in RFT. For quality attributes, the temper loss of samples tempered with radio frequency is lower than that of RT and WT after all freeze-thaw cycles, and RFT resulted in the lowest TVBN value (9.17 mgN/100 g) of shrimps after the 5th freeze-thaw cycle. The PPO activity and melanosis of samples increased as the number of freeze-thaw cycles increased, and RFT effectively inhibited the development of melanosis. After the 3rd freeze-thaw cycle, the enthalpy change (△H) and the sulfhydryl content (0.16 mmol/gprot) of radio frequency tempered samples was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that of WT and RT. RFT retained the hardness and chewiness of shrimp samples in all freeze-thaw cycles. Therefore, RFT effectively inhibited melanosis and reduce protein oxidation in Pacific white shrimp during freeze-thaw cycles with its fast and uniform heating characteristics.