Quality changes of duck meat during thermal sterilization processing caused by microwave, stepwise retort, and general retort heating.

The quality changes of duck meat during thermal sterilization using microwave, stepwise retort and general retort heating were evaluated. Results showed that compared with stepwise retort and general retort, duck meat subjected to microwave showed significantly higher gumminess, chewiness, cohesiveness and resilience as well as glutamic acid, lysine and total amino acids. Low-field NMR revealed that the relative content of immobilized water after microwave and stepwise retort treatment was significantly higher than that after general retort treatment. The relative content of 1-octen-3-ol with characteristic mushroom aroma was significantly higher with microwave and stepwise retort heating than with general retort heating, while 2-pentyl-furan with poor taste was only detected with general retort heating. The muscle bundles subjected to microwave were neatly arranged, similar to those with no thermal sterilization. Overall, the meat quality after three thermal sterilization treatment was microwave > stepwise retort > general retort.
Competing Interests: Author MH was employed by Nanjing Huangjiaoshou Food Science and Technology Co., Ltd. Author YZ was employed by Henan Province Qi County Yongda Food Co., Ltd. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
(Copyright © 2022 Yang, Li, Wang, Luan, Sun, Huang, Wang and Zheng.)