Foods (Nov 2020)

The Impact of a Consecutive Process of Pulsed Electric Field, Sous-Vide Cooking, and Reheating on the Properties of Beef Semitendinosus Muscle

  • Se-Ho Jeong,
  • Eui-Chan Kim,
  • Dong-Un Lee

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9111674
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 11
p. 1674

Abstract

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The effects of a consecutive process of pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment, sous-vide cooking, and reheating on the properties of beef semitendinosus muscle were investigated. Fresh meats were PEF-treated with different electric field strengths of 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 kV/cm, and then the control and PEF-pretreated beef samples were sous-vide cooked at 60 °C for up to 24 h. The PEF pretreatment resulted in tenderization of the fresh meat proportional to the increase in the electric field strength. A significant decrease in cutting force (by 35%) was observed after PEF treatment at 2.0 kV/cm. The hardness and chewiness of the meat were also significantly reduced by PEF treatment. After sous-vide cooking, the PEF-pretreated samples exhibited a significantly reduced cutting force, redness value (a*), and myoglobin content (mg/g) (p p > 0.05). When the sous-vide-cooked meats were reheated in an oven (230 °C, 5 min), the reduced cutting force induced by the PEF pretreatment was retained.

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