Brittleness mechanism of pork meatballs revealed from molecular structure to macroscopic performance

Abstract Meatballs are manufactured with great craftsmanship, but the brittle quality of meatballs is not resistant to frozen storage, which limits the large‐scale promotion of meatballs for transportation. Meanwhile, the ‘brittle mechanism’ of meatballs is still unclear and it is difficult to solve the scientific problem of brittle quality loss of meatballs from the root. This study revealed the mechanism underlying the brittleness of pork meatballs gel. In this study, the rheological properties, textural quality, molecular forces and microstructure of meatballs were characterized using fresh meat (FsM group), ambient meat group, frozen meat group, and ground meat group. The results showed that the FsM group presented better sensorial characteristics. The rheological properties of the FsM group exhibited higher storage modulus (G′) and loss modulus (G″), indicating better viscoelastic properties. The results of textural determination reflected that the FsM group showed improved brittleness quality and the brittleness was supported by hydrophobic interactions and disulfide bonds. The FsM group with good brittleness quality formed a ‘large cavity’ microstructure. The correlations analysis revealed a correlation between the texture properties of meatballs and their protein molecular forces. Our findings clearly provide new insights into the mechanism underlying the brittleness of meatballs.