Effect of Temperature and Glassy States on the Molecular Mobility of Solutes in Frozen Tuna Muscle As Studied by Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy with Spin Probe Detection

The mobility of solutes in frozen food systems (tuna muscle, sarcoplasmic protein fraction of tuna muscle, and carbohydrate−water) has been studied using the temperature dependence of the shape of electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra of the spin probe 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl (TEMPOL). The spin probe was incorporated into the tuna meat from an aqueous solution of TEMPOL or by contact with a layer of TEMPOL crystals. The melting/freezing of freeze-concentrated solutes in frozen tuna meat was observed to take place over a range of temperatures from −25 to −10 °C. Lower temperatures gave ESR powder spectra due to the decreased mobility of the spin probe, and the temperature dependence of the mobility of the spin probe did not show abrupt changes at the glass transition temperatures of the systems. The mobility of nonglass forming solutes is concluded to be decoupled from the glass forming components. Similar behavior was also observed for TEMPOL in frozen, aqueous carbohydrate systems. The temperature dependence of the mobility of TEMPOL in the frozen systems was analyzed using the Arrhenius equation, and the logarithm of the Arrhenius preexponential factor τa was found to be linearly correlated with the activation energy for all of the tuna and carbohydrate samples, indicating a common molecular mechanism for the observed mobility of TEMPOL in all of the systems. The linear correlation also suggests that the observed mobility of TEMPOL in the frozen aqueous systems is dominated by enthalpy−entropy compensation effects, where the mobility of TEMPOL is thermodynamically strongly coupled to the closest surrounding molecules. Keywords: Frozen tuna; ESR; solute mobility; glass transition; melting