To get insight into the thawing and salting in recovery and protection mechanisms on quality in frozen meat after subsequent cooking. The myofiber morphological-water evolution and quality changes in beef during freezing-thawing-cooking and freezing-cooking treatments were investigated. The cooking losses of fresh-cooked, frozen-cooked, and frozen-thawed-cooked samples were 27.14, 30.42, and 29.10 %, respectively. Compared to fresh-cooked samples, the moisture contents of frozen-cooked and frozen-thawed-cooked beef were reduced by 3.29 % and 1.03 %, respectively. Inter and intra-myofibril ice crystallization during freezing destroyed the myofibril structure and interacted with the heat-induced constriction due to cooking, driving myowater to migrate from intrafibrous to interfibrous space, which induced higher cooking loss in the frozen samples. Thawing contributed to the renaturation of myofiber and decreased the cooking loss. Salt regulated ice formation and melting, enhanced the resistance of myofiber and promoted free water reabsorption during thawing, which reduced the freezing-induced damage of muscle and improved the final quality of cooked beef. This study provides new insights into the mechanism of freezing-heating loss of beef based on myofiber morphology and water distribution visual analysis, which could help reduce the quality deterioration along the frozen processing supply chain.
Keywords: Freeze-induced damage; Heat-induced constriction; Ice crystal; Tissue morphology; Water migration.
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