Ohmic cooking: Application of a novel technology in pork and influences on water holding capacity, cooking loss and colour

Abstract

Ohmic heating is a novel technique that, until the past two decades, had been underutilized in the industry, particularly because of limitations in the development of applied devices. In recent years, ohmic heating applications have been studied in different varieties of food processing (i.e.: pork, beef, turkey, rice). This technique potentially represents an innovative application for the gastronomic sector. In this research, the aim was to evaluate the application of ohmic cooking regarding water holding capacity, cooking loss and pork short shank colour. Ohmic cooking was used for 2, 2.5, and 3 min at an electric field strength of 21 ± 1 V/cm, and the results were compared to pan cooking for 13 min. There were no significant differences between the cooking methods regarding cooking loss; however, significant differences concerning water holding capacity and change in colour (ΔE) were found for ohmic cooking treatments at 2 min and 2.5 min, respectively. It was found that for the ohmic cooking process of pork meat samples brined with saltwater concentrations below 2.1% (w/w NaCl), the electrical conductivity values are generally low, and are not sufficient for the cooking of meat samples at these conditions. Thus, ohmic heating of short shank compared to pan cooking represents an advantage with respect to cooking time for the gastronomic sector.