Abstract
Tenderness is a primary indicator of meat quality, which directly influences consumer acceptance of the meat. Ultrasound can effectively increase the tenderness of red meat, such as pork and beef, by breaking up muscle fibers and connective tissues through mechanical force, thus making it a basis for physical tenderization of meat to improve meat quality. In this study, ultrasound (2200 W, 15 kHz) was applied in the processing of pork loin to explore the influences of varying treatment durations (0-6 minutes) and posttreatment aging durations (0-2 days) on the tenderness, texture profile, physical and chemical qualities (myofibrillar fragmentation index, or MFI, and rate of marinade absorption), and sensory evaluation (9-point hedonic scale) of meat. The results indicated that ultrasonic treatment (2200 W) for 6 minutes can effectively tenderize the meat by increasing the MFI to 15.1%, lowering the hardness in texture profile analysis (TPA) to 87.6%, and reducing shear force to 87.9%. Moreover, if pork loin is allowed to age for 48 hours following 6 minutes of ultrasonic treatment, shear force can be further reduced to 72.3%. The sensory evaluation scores for texture, tenderness, and overall acceptance of pork loin increased with the elongated ultrasonic treatment.
Highlights
Pork is one of the farming and animal products that have the highest output value in Chinese communities; Taiwan the butchery industry reached NT$78.1 billion worth of annual output in 2014, and the meat processing industry NT$29.3 billion [1]
The results reveal that the Myofibril Fragmentation Index (MFI) rose substantially from 33.2 to 37.7 after 30 minutes of ultrasonic treatment at 300 W, and when the power intensity was raised to 2200 W, the MFI took only 4 minutes to rise considerably from 44.9 to 54.3
This is evidence that high-intensity ultrasonic treatment exerts enough energy to break down myofibrils, which suggests its potential of tenderization
Summary
Pork is one of the farming and animal products that have the highest output value in Chinese communities; Taiwan the butchery industry reached NT$78.1 billion worth of annual output in 2014, and the meat processing industry NT$29.3 billion [1]. Ultrasonic treatment (15-100 kHz) is a new processing technique that uses ultrasound to pass through liquid and generate cavitation bubbles, which can be characterized by the dynamics of oscillations (repeated compression and decompression) and the maximum temperature and pressure (35-120 MPa) reached when they collapse [15,20,21] It relies on high-speed mechanical movements and cavitation in liquid to create massive physical forces (e.g. in the forms of shock waves or shear forces) that can break down organic tissues and improve food quality [22,23]. This study directed ultrasonic energy into pork loin to explore how the power intensity of ultrasonic treatment, treatment duration, and aging duration affects the texture, tenderness, and sensory evaluation of pork loin to enhance meat quality, improve consumer selectivity and convenience, and accelerate tenderizing technique development in the meat processing industry
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