Development of a cabin for fast freezing in a household refrigerator and examination of its effects on the quality characteristics of beef

In this study, a cabin design was made for fast freezing in household refrigerators using different fan types (radial fan velocity of 1100, 1500 and 1900 rpm) and axial (1350 rpm) and the effects on the quality characteristics of beef were examined. Before the freezing process, the beef (Semitendinosus) was sized at 10 × 10 × 2 cm as a single fillet; 2 × 2 × 2 cm as the cubed sample and the minced beef was prepared by the butcher from the same meat and shaped with the dimensions of 10 × 10 × 2 cm. It was seen that when the fan velocity was 1900 rpm during the freezing process, the weight (0.39–11.61 %) and cooking loss (26.69–44.66 %) values of the beef samples decreased. A decrease was observed in the TBARS values (0.34–0.87) of the sample as the radial fan velocity increased in radial fan. When the total color change values (3.96–7.59) of all beef samples were examined, it was seen that the least color change was achieved with the axial fan before and after cooking. When the textural properties of the meat were examined before and after cooking, it was observed that the hardness decreased as the radial fan velocity increased, and the lowest hardness value was obtained from freezing with the axial fan. In addition, porosity values decreased and protein denaturation temperatures increased due to the formation of smaller ice crystals with the axial fan. As a result, it has been observed that fan type and velocity have significant effects on accelerating the freezing process and preserving the quality of beef samples.