Enhancing physical and chemical quality attributes of frozen meat and meat products: Mechanisms, techniques and applications

作者：Naixin Lu, Ji Ma, Da‐Wen Sun · 发表于：Trends in Food Science & Technology · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1016/j.tifs.2022.04.004 · 被引用次数：133 · 研究领域：Meat and Animal Product Quality、Freezing and Crystallization Processes、Magnetic and Electromagnetic Effects

Background: Freezing is one of the most common methods for preserving meat and meat products. Ice crystals are a key factor in the quality of frozen meat and meat products. Common freezing methods used in the food industry such as air-blast freezing and liquid immersion freezing could form large and irregular ice crystals in the extracellular region of the frozen meat and meat products and cause tissue damages, leading to quality and nutrient losses upon thawing. Therefore, it is important to enhance the quality of frozen meat and meat products by controlling the formation and distribution of ice crystals during freezing. Scope and approach: This review presents the key mechanisms in enhancing the physical and chemical quality attributes of frozen meat and meat products and the techniques available for realizing these enhancements. The mechanisms discussed include acceleration of freezing rates, formation of small and evenly distributed ice crystals and generation of intracellular ice crystals. The effects of these mechanisms on enhancing microstructure, moisture, texture feature, and colour, and pH values, protein, and lipid are analyzed in detail. In addition, their effects on microbiological safety are also discussed. Key findings and conclusions: The improvements in the quality of frozen meats can be achieved through the control of the formation and distribution of ice crystals in different approaches. Among the techniques available for realizing these improvements, high-...