Assessment of the cavitation effect on colour attributes of chilled pork with different autolysis during brining

Abstract

The study assesses the effect of low-frequency ultrasonic pre-treatment of slightly saturated 3% brine on colour attributes of chilled pork after 24 h salting. The results obtained are used to formulate recommendations to stabilise surface and intramuscular colouration in normally autolysed, PSE- and DFD-defective pork by cavitational disintegration of liquid sodium chloride-based salting media. Cavitational pre-activation of 3% brine using a submersible low-frequency sonication technique is recommended as a method to optimise colour attributes in normally autolysed pork and meat with inner and surface DFD defects. Prior cavitational activation of 3% brine was shown undesirable with PSE meat due to a reduced steadiness of the component a* (degree of redness) in the CIELab colour system.