As a consequence of insufficient study of water phase change in meat accompanied by water crystallization, its modeling is currently based on the empirical dependence of the frozen water portion on temperature. Such model does not allow answering a number of questions such as of metrological order, and also of physicochemical interpretation of processes occurring in meat during water crystallization. In this paper, we propose an approach to modeling the phase change process of meat during its freezing on the basis of the phonon theory of Debye crystallization, which allows to obtain physically justified dependences of heat capacity on temperature in the phase change region. The obtained dependences may serve as a simple method for calculating the heat capacity of meat in the temperature range of 113 K to the cryoscopic temperature of the given meat type, or as a basis for the analysis and correction of factors affecting the meat freezing in the temperature range of the phase change.

The paper proposes a model for the process of free moisture crystallization in beef within the framework of the Debye concept with establishment of dependencies of model parameters on the initial moisture content. Model adequacy was validated by comparison of the calculation results with the results of the experiments on determination of values of heat capacity and phase transition enthalpy in beef with different initial moisture obtained by the differential scanning calorimetry method. It is shown that the end of free water phase transition in beef with initial moisture in a range of 37% to 80% occurs at a temperature of 243 К. Calculation dependencies of parameters of the model used for calculation of beef heat capacity are presented.