Agriculture & Food, Volume 1, 2013

Rezumat: Freezing of food represents widely used preservation technology. In the frozen food, texture is highly important factor. Freezing system may cause severe damage to tissues, and can cause excessive softening and destruction. The effects of the thermal equalized treatments in frozen conditions on pork quality were analyzed. The pork samples were processed to compare the effect of two freezing methods, and internal pressure, drip loss, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) were investigated. Both of the temperature and internal pressure of pork was measured and recorded continuously by a temperature sensor and a pressure sensor during the freezing. In the non-thermal equalized freezing, internal pressure of pork reached approximately 7~8psig, but thermal equalized freezing was shown about 4 psig during freezing. And, the freezing time of pork by thermal equalized treatment was decreased to 10~20% than the other method. Also, the microstructure of frozen pork tissue assisted by thermal equalized treatment was observed much less intercellular disruption. This was attributed to the domination of intracellular small ice crystals. This result suggested that the thermal equalized treatment in freezing system were more effective reduced damage to tissues.