Changes in the quality of superchilled rabbit meat stored at different temperatures.

This work studied the effects of a superchilling process at two different temperatures on the shelf life and selected quality parameters of rabbit meat. As the storage time increased, the rates at which the total aerobic count, total volatile basic nitrogen, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances and pH value increased were significantly lower in superchilled rabbit meat stored at -4°C compared to those in rabbit meat stored at -2.5°C and 4°C. SDS-PAGE analysis indicated that the decrease in storage temperature could significantly reduce the degree of protein degradation. The lightness, redness, shear force, the integrity of muscle microstructure and water holding capacity decreased with increasing storage time. Compared with the samples frozen at -18°C, superchilled rabbit meat shows a marked reduction in microstructure deterioration. These results suggest that shelf life of good-quality rabbit meat was 20d under superchilling at -2.5°C and at least 36d under superchilling at -4°C, compared with less than 6d under traditional chilled storage.