Changes in chicken meat proteins during microwave and electric oven cooking

Abstract

Alterations in proteins and some functional properties of chicken thigh (TM) and breast meats (BM) cooked with microwave oven (MWO) were evaluated in comparison to traditional electric oven (EO). Cooking loss in both TM and BM did not differ between the cooking methods (p > .05). In TM, MWO cooking resulted in higher water‐holding capacity (WHC) than EO (p < .05). Sarcoplasmic protein solubility of TM decreased with MWO cooking while both cooking methods resulted in reduction in both sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar protein solubility in BM (p < .05). TM and BM cooked with MWO were harder in texture (p < .05) than EO cooked samples as determined in texture profile analysis. The intensity of myofibrillar protein bands in the Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS‐PAGE) decreased after cooking by both MWO and EO, whereas EO cooked samples demonstrated more fragmentation in both sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar proteins in comparison with MWO cooked chicken meats. Practical applications Microwave cooking is an alternative, efficient method to reduce time, energy, and cost as compared to conventional oven cooking. In oven cooking, thermal energy is transmitted quite slow from the surface of the food to the center, whereas microwave energy is converted into heat inside the food itself which provides homogeneous heat distribution. In the present study, the effects of microwave and EO cooking methods on some quality characteristics, mainly proteins of TM and BM were evaluated. It was found that microwave cooking resulted in harder texture, but better WHC to its counterpart which also caused more degradation in myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic proteins. Because microwaves shorten cooking time, lowers the energy consumption, and makes the production process sustainable and more efficient than with conventional ovens, while better preserving the nutritional quality of the product becomes a sound alternative. Therefore, it is worth to keep exploring this novel cooking approach that might render significant advantages in industrial applications.

Monitoring Thermal and Non-Thermal Treatments during Processing of Muscle Foods: A Comprehensive Review of Recent Technological Advances

“…Several studies have reported that the performance of microwave heating overpasses that of traditional heating methods. For example, a recent study showed that microwaving chicken thigh and breast meats results in better quality attributes of the cooked products compared to conventional ovens [63]. In another study, microwave cooking was found to improve saltiness perception of grass carp meat, with lower cooking loss and shear force being observed compared to traditional water bath [64].…”

Monitoring Thermal Treatments Applied to Meat Using Traditional Methods and Spectroscopic Techniques: a Review of Advances over the Last Decade

“…The main obstacles include nonhomogeneous heating and high cost for the equipment, although various solutions have been proposed recently to overcome some of these limitations (Chizoba Ekezie et al 2017). Numerous studies have reported the superiority of microwave heating compared to traditional water bath or oven (Calabrò and Magazù 2012;Han et al 2019b;Li et al 2019;Taşkıran et al 2020). More details about these studies will be given in section 3.…”

“…Apart from the sample colour, the results showed an improved texture and better overall flavour of microwave-cooked samples compared to those of conventional boiling cooking. More recently, the microwave cooking was found to be more efficient for cooking thigh and breast chicken meat than a traditional oven (Taşkıran et al 2020).…”

“…Thermal treatment concept refers to heating food at a certain temperature for a certain exposure time. Most meat and meat products are almost always subjected to some kind of heat treatment prior to consumption (Sun 2012;Taşkıran et al 2020;Yu et al 2017). Thermal treatments have even gained more attention in recent years due to the development of a wide variety of ready-to-eat products.…”

Characterization of the physicochemical changes and volatile compound fingerprinting during the chicken sugar-smoking process

“…Chicken meat is the most commonly consumed meat source in many countries and simultaneously have an increase in consumption and production around the world ( Takran et al., 2020 ). Chicken meat products are available as either sugar-smoked chicken products ( Chen et al., 2013 ) or roast chicken products ( Huang et al., 2020 ).…”