No abstract

Summary In this paper, bubbling vacuum cooling (BVC) was compared with immersion vacuum cooling (IVC) in cooling time, weight loss, colour, texture profile, and uniformity of water temperature around the cooked meat. Results showed that the total cooling time of BVC (16.58 min) from 72 to 4 °C was shorter than that of IVC (19.12 min), while a significantly positive effect was observed in reducing cooling time for BVC at the lower temperature range (under 25 °C). For the cooling time from 10 to 4 °C, BVC (4.65 min) was significant (P < 0.05) less than that of IVC (6.47 min). Furthermore, water temperature of BVC can reach lower and distribute more uniformity than that of IVC. However, there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) in weight loss, colour and textural profile of cooled meat between these two cooling methods.

In this study, two types of cooling methods (vacuum cooling and air cooling) were used to cool cooked macro‐porous sausage. Alterations in the microbiological conditions, pH, instrumental color (L*, a*, and b*), total volatile nitrogenous bases (TVB‐N), lipid oxidation (TBARS), water activity (aW), moisture content, and texture indicators were evaluated to determine sausages' quality changes during storage under refrigeration for up to 10 days. In general, the shelf life of sausages chilled by vacuum cooling (8 days) was similar to that of sausages cooled by air cooling (9 days). For pH, no significant difference (p > .05) was obtained between two cooling methods. However, vacuum‐cooled sausages have lower L* value (p < .05), lower moisture content, and water activity compared with the air‐cooled sausages. However, sausages cooled by vacuum cooling showed a sharp increase in TBARS and TVB‐N values but maintained texture characteristics for a longer time compared with air‐cooled sausages. Although the results indicated that the quality of sausages treated by those two methods remarkably decreased after 7 days, characteristics of sausages cooled by vacuum cooling are better within accepted standards compared with air‐cooled sausages. In conclusion, vacuum cooling can be a feasible cooling method with great potential to be used in cooked macro‐porous sausages to maintain the quality and may provide reference experiences for the food with similar structure.