Combined impacts of low voltage electrostatic field and high humidity assisted-thawing on quality of pork steaks

The present study investigated the synergistic effects of low voltage electrostatic field combined with high humidity thawing (LHT) on the quality of pork steaks. Results indicated that LHT effectively maintained the colour stability of pork steaks by inhibiting the formation of metmyoglobin. Meanwhile, the thawing loss and centrifuging loss of pork steaks were significantly reduced (P < 0.05) in LHT group and low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) results confirmed its improved WHC of muscle. Additionally, LHT samples displayed significantly lower hardness with higher springiness (P < 0.05) owing to its integrated muscle microstructure. Based on the thaw curve and PCA results, it can be concluded that the low voltage electrostatic field treatment could effectively shorten the thawing time and promote the WHC of muscle, while the high humidity seemed to play an important role in maintaining the colour stability of thawed pork. These results evidenced a potential application of the LHT method for meat thawing.