Vacuum cooling treatment can improve the texture properties of frozen pre‐fried chicken nuggets compared with air cooling

Abstract

To improve the texture properties of frozen pre‐fried chicken nuggets, this study has investigated the effects of vacuum cooling (VC), air cooling (AC) as well as air and vacuum combine cooling (AC/VC) on its crispness after microwave reheating. Initial experiments were carried out to evaluate the cooling rate, water loss, porosity moisture content and texture of fried chicken nuggets. VC samples showed the fastest cooling rate, the highest water loss and porosity, the lowest rate of surface moisture content, and the best crustal crispness among all cooling treatments. To acquire better crispness value, response surface analysis was designed to adjust the vacuum cooling parameters. Response surface analysis showed that lower final pressure and final temperature, higher volumetric displacement, may obtain the better crispness of pre‐fried chicken nuggets during vacuum cooling process. Novelty impact statement In our study, by compared different cooling methods, we got the factors that affect the crispness of fried products, and found that vacuum cooling treatment could better improved the crispness of pre‐fried products. The improvement was not only reflected in the end of cooling, but also after frozen storage and microwave reheating, the crispness of pre‐fried products after vacuum cooling was still higher than that of treated by the other cooling methods. Our research explored different cooling treatment application in improvement of the crispness for the first time, which provided a new idea in order to improve the crispness of fried products.