Insights into the potential mechanism of diversified freezing techniques' influence on quality of golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus): Focus on freezing speed, ice crystal morphology, water migration, and texture properties
Ouyang Zheng, Qian Hou, Qihang Wei, Ping Sun, Wenxin Cheng, Linhuan Ding, Qinxiu Sun, Shucheng Liu
Abstract
The influences of air freezing (AF), liquid nitrogen freezing (LNF), immersion freezing (IF), magnetic field-assisted immersion freezing (MIF), and ultrasound-assisted immersion freezing (UIF) on the freezing time, water holding capacity, texture profile analysis (TPA), and microstructure of the golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus) muscle was investigated. The findings indicated that the MIF and UIF groups were more effective in reducing the freezing time than other freezing method, with 84.35% and 85.81% shorter than that of AF, respectively. Among all the treatments, MIF had the best muscle integrity and closely packed myogenic fibers, which were more beneficial for maintaining the water holding capacity, textural properties, and color of the golden pompano muscle. Among all the groups, the MIF quality was the closest to unfrozen samples. Therefore, MIF effectively reduced the size of ice crystals, and inhibited the quality deterioration of frozen golden pompano.