The effects of various Chinese processing methods on the nutritional and safety properties of four kinds of meats

Abstract

Chinese processed meat products are popular in the world, while different processing methods produce meats of different quality and safety. The aim of this work was to compare and evaluate the effects of seven Chinese processing methods (steaming, boiling, braising, pan-frying, frying, roasting and drying) on the nutritional and safety properties of four kinds of meats (beef, pork, chicken, duck). Comparing with the unprocessed raw meat, four kinds of meats treated with thermal processing displayed increased L⁎ values, generally enhanced texture properties, decreased moisture contents, and increased protein contents. Among all the processing meats, the wet thermal processed meats exhibited relatively high total amino acid contents. Fatty acid contents showed the lowest value in boiled meats but relatively high values in fried, pan-fried and dried meats. For safety properties, thermal processing methods of pan-frying, frying and roasting caused mass formation of trans fatty acids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The highest PAHs contents were detected as 49.70 μg/kg in pan-fried beef, 18.18 μg/kg in fried pork, 11.02 μg/kg in roasted chicken and 15.24 μg/kg in fried duck, which were 14.34 times, 4.74 times, 7.50 times and 8.35 times of their corresponding blank control groups. When nutritional and safety properties are pursued, steaming and boiling are recommended for all the four kinds of meats. Besides, braising is also suitable for pork, while drying could also be used for chicken and duck.