Effect of Ultrasonic Time on Quality Characteristics and Myofibrillar Protein Structure of Beef Jerky

Abstract

In this paper, the beef longissimus dorsi muscle was used as experimental material and subjected to ultrasound-assisted curing. The effects of different ultrasonic times (0, 15, 30, 45, 60 min, 300 W, 30 kHz) on the quality characteristics and protein structure of beef strips before fermentation and beef jerky after 6 days of natural fermentation were investigated. The results showed that increasing the ultrasonic time significantly increased the moisture content, water activity, pH and salt content and decreased the shear force in beef strips before fermentation and beef jerky after 6 days of natural fermentation (P0.05). In conclusion, to avoid excessive oxidation of proteins and waste of energy, an ultrasonic treatment time of 30 min was finally determined as the best treatment condition, which could effectively improve the quality characteristics of beef jerky.

Keywords

• beef jerky
• ultrasonic-assisted curing
• ultrasonic time
• quality
• protein structure