Molecular and microstructural changes of chicken breasts in preheating-freezing-reheating process: The role of ice crystal formation and growth

IF 3.4 2区农林科学 Q2 FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Journal of Food Science Pub Date : 2025-04-09 DOI:10.1111/1750-3841.70199

Bowen Wang, Xing Chen, Bowen Yan, Nana Zhang, Yuan Tao, Jianxin Zhao, Hao Zhang, Wei Chen, Daming Fan

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The molecular and microstructural evolution of meat during preheating-freezing-reheating process remained unclear, limiting the quality improvement of prepared dishes. This study revealed this evolution of chicken breasts by comparing three groups with various preheating states to fully preheated (control) and fresh samples. By ice crystal characterization, fresh samples typically form small, evenly distributed intracellular ice crystals, whereas preheating promoted the formation of irregular extracellular crystals. All samples exhibited larger ice crystals after recrystallization. Results showed that ice crystal formation primarily induced protein unfolding and aggregation, while recrystallization predominantly drove lipid oxidation and microstructural damage. Control samples displayed extreme aggregation and microstructural damage, with significantly higher turbidity and hydrophobic interaction values (p < 0.05), leading to texture deterioration. On the other hand, moderate preheating samples (CV2 [where CV is cooked value], preheated to core temperature reached 68.05°C) resulted in lower protein aggregation and water loss, with lower values in turbidity, intrinsic fluorescence intensity, covalent bonds content, and area of T_2i relaxation peaks, enhancing texture quality. Scanning electron microscopy images indicated that intracellular ice crystals in fresh samples primarily caused cellular structure damage, and extracellular ice crystals in control and CV2 samples contributed to the disruption and curling of connective tissue. Overall, preheating impacted the final qualities by affecting ice crystal properties, resulting in a better maintained molecular structure and microstructure of CV2 samples compared to the control samples.

Practical Application

This study revealed the molecular and microstructural change of chicken breasts during preheating-freezing-reheating process, recommending an easy way to improve prepared meat qualities: reducing the preheating state to an appropriate level rather than fully preheated. Besides, the different ice crystal properties in chicken breasts with different preheating states offered a theoretical foundation for frozen control strategy of prepared meat. These results provide critical insights into the quality control and industrial upgrade of prepared dishes.

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鸡胸肉在预热-冷冻-再加热过程中的分子和微观结构变化：冰晶形成和生长的作用

肉类在预热-冷冻-再加热过程中的分子和微观结构演变尚不清楚，限制了菜肴质量的提高。本研究通过将三组不同预热状态的鸡胸肉与完全预热（对照）和新鲜样品进行比较，揭示了鸡胸肉的这种进化。通过冰晶表征，新鲜样品通常会形成小而均匀分布的细胞内冰晶，而预热则会形成不规则的细胞外冰晶。所有样品在再结晶后都显示出较大的冰晶。结果表明，冰晶形成主要诱导蛋白质展开和聚集，而再结晶主要导致脂质氧化和微结构损伤。对照样品显示出极端的聚集和微观结构损伤，浊度和疏水相互作用值明显更高(p <；0.05)，导致织构变质。另一方面，适度预热样品（CV2[其中CV为煮熟值]，预热至核心温度68.05℃），降低了蛋白质聚集和水分损失，降低了浊度、本征荧光强度、共价键含量和T2i弛豫峰面积，提高了质地质量。扫描电镜图像显示，新鲜样品的细胞内冰晶主要导致细胞结构损伤，而对照组和CV2样品的细胞外冰晶则导致结缔组织的破坏和卷曲。总的来说，预热通过影响冰晶性质来影响最终质量，导致CV2样品的分子结构和微观结构比对照样品保持得更好。本研究揭示了鸡胸肉在预热-冷冻-再加热过程中分子和微观结构的变化，推荐了一种简单的方法来改善成品肉的品质：将预热状态降低到适当的水平，而不是完全预热。此外，不同预热状态下鸡胸肉的冰晶特性也不同，为成品肉的冷冻控制策略提供了理论依据。这些结果为成品菜肴的质量控制和产业升级提供了重要的见解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Food Science 工程技术-食品科技

CiteScore

7.10

自引率

2.60%

发文量

412

审稿时长

3.1 months

期刊介绍： The goal of the Journal of Food Science is to offer scientists, researchers, and other food professionals the opportunity to share knowledge of scientific advancements in the myriad disciplines affecting their work, through a respected peer-reviewed publication. The Journal of Food Science serves as an international forum for vital research and developments in food science. The range of topics covered in the journal include: -Concise Reviews and Hypotheses in Food Science -New Horizons in Food Research -Integrated Food Science -Food Chemistry -Food Engineering, Materials Science, and Nanotechnology -Food Microbiology and Safety -Sensory and Consumer Sciences -Health, Nutrition, and Food -Toxicology and Chemical Food Safety The Journal of Food Science publishes peer-reviewed articles that cover all aspects of food science, including safety and nutrition. Reviews should be 15 to 50 typewritten pages (including tables, figures, and references), should provide in-depth coverage of a narrowly defined topic, and should embody careful evaluation (weaknesses, strengths, explanation of discrepancies in results among similar studies) of all pertinent studies, so that insightful interpretations and conclusions can be presented. Hypothesis papers are especially appropriate in pioneering areas of research or important areas that are afflicted by scientific controversy.