Influence of Different Thawing Methods on Physicochemical Properties and Quality of Goose Thigh Meat

To explore whether fast microwave thawing has a negative impact on the quality of goose meat when compared with low temperature thawing and running water thawing, we compared the influences of the two traditional thawing methods and two microwave treatments (microwave thawing 1: 45℃, 1 800 kW and 2 min; microwave thawing 2: 45℃,1 800 kW, and 6 min) on the color, thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) value, met-myoglobin (MetMb) content,cooking loss, dripping loss, pH, shear force and protein conformation of goose meat during the thawing process.The results showed that compared with microwave thawing 1, low-temperature thawing could better maintain the cooking loss, dripping loss and shear force of goose meat, while the running water thawed-goose meat revealed lower dripping loss and cooking loss than that thawed by microwave thawing 1.Microwave thawing 2 increased the cooking loss, dripping loss, shear force and TBARS value compared to the other treatments, resulting in the poorest quality of goose meat.All four thawing methods had no significant effect on meat pH (P > 0.05).According to the Raman spectra, the influence of running water thawing on protein secondary structure was higher than that of microwave thawing, while low-temperature thawing proved to be least effective in this regard.While the quality of microwave thawed meat was inferior to that of low-temperature thawed goose meat, microwave thawing for a short time could significantly reduce the deterioration of goose meat quality and improve the thawing efficiency in comparison with running water thawing.Among the three thawing methods, low temperature thawing and short-time microwave treatment provided better maintenance of goose quality. © 2020, China Food Publishing Company. All right reserved.