Deterioration Mechanism of and Improvement Strategies for Frozen Meat

Abstract

During the freezing, storage, and thawing process, physicochemical changes occur in raw meat, which will inevitably lead to quality deterioration mainly including decreased water-holding capacity and the deterioration of color and texture. The quality deterioration can be effectively reduced by novel freezing and its assistive technologies. This article summarizes the quality deterioration mechanism of raw meat during freezing and frozen storage, and reviews the approaches for improving frozen meat quality, such as novel freezing techniques, cryoprotectants, novel packaging techniques and novel thawing techniques, which will provide a theoretical basis and technical guidance for improving the quality of frozen meat.

Keywords

• raw meat; freezing; frozen storage; quality; cryoprotectants; assisted freezing techniques