Impact of frozen storage under static electric field on frozen gluten rheological properties

Abstract Background and Objectives Electrostatic fields, as a new food physical processing technology, can effectively improve the quality of frozen food. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of electrostatic field‐assisted frozen storage (SEF) on dough rheological properties, gluten structure, and its mechanism. Findings The results showed that the G′ and G" of the gluten were efficiently maintained by SEF throughout frozen storage. Meanwhile, after 8 weeks of frozen storage, the relative contents of α‐helices were 25.28% and 24.76%, respectively, and the relative contents of random coils were 40.58% and 41.25%, respectively, in SEFs compared with the control group. This suggested that SEFs might affect the recrystallization of ice crystals by changing the orientation of water molecules, which, in turn, alleviated the disruption of protein secondary structural order. SEF had no effect on the gauche‐gauche‐gauche conformation. SEF reduced damage to protein senior structure by frozen storage. The glutenin macropolymer (GMP) depolymerization of the control and SEF groups was 28.55% and 28.17%, respectively, and the SEF decelerated the GMP depolymerization. Conclusions SEF slowed the disruption of the molecular structure by reducing the depolymerization of GMP and slowing the depolymerization of the α‐helix, thus maintaining the viscoelasticity of the gluten. Significance and Novelty Exploring the mechanism of the effect of electrostatic field‐assisted frozen storage on gluten quality.