Effects of high-pressure treatments on water characteristics and juiciness of rabbit meat sausages: Role of microstructure and chemical interactions

Abstract

Abstract High-pressure processing (HPP), 100–300 MPa for 3, 9 or 15 min (25 °C), was applied to rabbit meat batters, using untreated samples as controls. Water characteristics and juiciness of samples were evaluated together with a quantitative analysis of microstructures and specific chemical interactions. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the data suggested that 200 MPa for 3 min was the threshold for effective HPP treatment under the conditions used. Compared with the controls, these conditions induced highly-interconnected and homogeneous tri-dimensional structures, which showed higher fractal dimensions and lower lacunarity. Overall, the HPP-treated samples exhibited a strengthening of hydrogen bonding together with non-specific associations and was accompanied by a reduction in disulfide bonding. These modifications contributed to a higher immobile-water population and faster proton relaxation-times. These changes were partly responsible for the reduced cooking losses and greater centrifugal losses ( P Industrial relevance High-pressure processing (HPP) is an effective technology as a pre-treatment to meat batters. Advantages include opportunities to reduce in fat and salt contents of processed meat products by appropriate use of this technique. In this study, we established that application of moderate HP-treatments (200 MPa for 9 and 15 min as well as 300 MPa for 3 and 9 min, 25 °C) on rabbit meat preparations led to a reduction in cooking loss of cooked batters, along with an enhancement of juiciness. This work with rabbit meat sausages verifies the potential of HPP for increasing juiciness in the cooked product, and further, defines conditions for the manufacture of high-yielding and juicy gel-type meat products.