Terminal temperature dominates the gel quality of chicken meat paste: An emphasis on multiple heating–cooling regimes

A survey of various heating strategies, including terminal temperature (70 and 90 °C), step heating (with or without holding at 50 °C for 10 min) and step cooling (with or without holding at 50 °C for 10 min), on the gelation properties of chicken meat paste was conducted. Compared to 70 °C, 90 °C heating drastically increased (p < 0.05) cooking loss (CL) from 5% to > 15% since more immobilized water was pushed out as free water. Step cooling could mitigate the high-temperature-induced CL. The impact of heating strategies on the textural properties of chicken meat is much lower than that on CL. For both 70 °C and 90 °C cooked samples, step heating reduced (p < 0.05) their whiteness by increasing the yellowness. The storage modulus (G') increase during cooling is mainly driven by cooling leaded lower mobility. Overall, low-temperature ramping heating produced excellent meat gel with low energy consumption.