Effects of different thawing methods on quality of unfrozen meats

The effects of thawing frozen meats using physical field-based methods and traditional thawing methods on frozen meat were examined is a critical analysis of relevant literature. Based on published data it can be concluded that physical field thawing methods reduce thawing cooking losses and retain color and texture of the thawed meat. Compared with meat samples thawed at room temperature, the loss due to ultrasonic thawing of pork, beef and mutton was lower by about 43%, 45% and 43%, respectively. The corresponding cooking loss decreased by 8.1%, 7.5% and 10.10%, respectively, under the test conditions. The results of MMb content and TBARS indicates that physical field thawing reduces protein and lipid oxidation of meat. Compared with the room temperature thawing group, the MMB content of the ultrasonic thawing group decreased by 10.13%, 15.70% and 12.69%, while the TBARS value of the ultrasonic thawing group was also the lowest, which decreased by 14.58%, 15.20% and 15.87% compared with the room temperature thawing group. LF-NMR results show that the ultrasonic thawing has the highest content of bound water and immobilized water. These results indicate that the physical field thawing methods can better maintain the quality of meat samples. Among different thawing methods tested ultrasonic thawing showed the best effects.