Effects of Various Thawing Methods on the Quality Characteristics of Frozen Beef

In this study, the quality characteristics due to the influence of various thawing methods on electro-magnetic and air blast frozen beef were examined. The loin and round of second grade Hanwoo were sliced into 5-7 cm thickness and packed with aerobic packaging. The packaged beef samples, which were frozen by air blast freezing at -45oC and electro-magnetic freezing at -55oC, were thawed by 4 thawing methods with refrigeration (4±1oC), room temperature (RT, 25oC), cold water (15oC), and microwave (2450 MHz). These samples were thawed to the point, which were core temperature reached 0oC. Analyses were carried out to determine drip and cooking loss, water holding capacity (WHC), moisture contents and sensory evaluation. Frozen beef thawed by microwave indicated a lower drip loss (0.66-2.01%) than the other thawing methods (0.80-2.50%). Cooking loss after electro-magnetic freezing indicated 52.0% by microwave thawing for round compared with 41.8% by refrigeration, 50.1% by RT, and 50.8% by cold water. WHC thawing by microwave with electro-magnetic freezing didn`t showed any difference depending on the thawing methods, while moisture contents was higher thawing by microwave with electro-magnetic freezing than refrigeration (71.9%), RT (75.0%), and cold water (74.9%) for round. The texture of sensory evaluation for round thawed by microwave result was the highest than refrigeration (4.7 point), RT (6.4 point) and cold water (6.6 point), while sensory evaluation was no significant difference. Therefore, it was shown that microwave thawing is an appropriate way to reduce the deterioration of meat quality due to freezing.