Combined impacts of initial freezing rate of pork leg muscles (M. biceps femoris and M. semitendinosus) and subsequent freezing on quality characteristics of pork patties.

The objective of this study was to determine the combined impacts of initial sub-primal freezing with subsequent freezing of manufactured pork patties on quality attributes and oxidative stability. Patties were manufactured (n = 3 batches) from pork leg muscles (M. biceps femoris and M. semitendinosus) frozen at different methods including still-air freezing (SAF), blast freezing (BF), and cryogenic freezing (CF). Then, patties were subjected to additional freezing treatments. Frozen/thawed patties exhibited increased cooking loss, springiness, and chewiness, lipid and protein oxidation, and decreased protein solubility compared to unfrozen counterparts (P < .05). However, patties from CF legs maintained similar protein solubility and lipid/protein oxidation compared to unfrozen controls (P > .05), while significantly minimizing sub-primal thawing loss and oxidation compared to patties from SAF. The results of the present study suggest the importance of initial freezing rate of sub-primals with subsequent freezing on quality characteristics of frozen/thawed meat patties.