Power ultrasonic on mass transport of beef: Effects of ultrasound intensity and NaCl concentration

The effects of ultrasound intensity and salt concentration of brining for accelerating brine transfer into beef were evaluated. Samples were analyzed with NaCl and water content, effective diffusion coefficient and microstructure. Results showed that ultrasound intensity and NaCl concentration of brine could significantly affect NaCl and moisture content at different treating time during meat brining (p < 0.05). According to the calculation of diffusion coefficients (D), measured and calculated data were consistent indicating the fitness of the applied model. The D values of NaCl or water significantly increased with ultrasound intensity while the salt concentration was slightly affected by D values of NaCl or water. These facts could be confirmed by microstructural analysis with TEM which illustrated that the space of separation of myofibrils improved with ultrasound intensity. However, with the different salt concentration of brining, ultrasound intensity 20.96 W/cm2 caused a nearly consistent result of myofibrils ruptured but significantly better than other ultrasound intensity (p < 0.05). Therefore, ultrasound could be considered a potential method to accelerate the brining process in meat products. In our research, the ultrasound intensity could significantly affect diffusion coefficients (D) of NaCl or water while the salt concentration with ultrasound processing was slightly affected the values of D, these results indicated that in industrial application, we might focus on the effect of ultrasound intensity. In addition, along with the emerging technology, this could reduce the amount of NaCl supplemented in brining and shorten the processing time.