In this study, a vacuum tumbler with 4 impellers (DVT) was designed and applied
for thawing frozen pork (vacuum −60 kPa, jacket 35°C, 1 rpm).
Quality characteristics of the thawed pork were compared with those of
industrially thawed meat by natural air at room temperature (NAT) and imported
vacuum tumbler (IVT). The thawing time for frozen pork (303.36 kg) using DVT
(165 min) was much shorter than that of NAT (4,200 min). DVT-thawed pork had
lower drip loss (0.85%) than NAT (2.08%). DVT-thawed pork showed a
pH of 5.92, a total bacterial count of 1.96±0.02 log CFU/g and no
coliforms. Deteriorations in fat (TBARS 0.31±0.01 MDA mg/kg) and protein
(VBN 5.67±1.98 mg%) in DVT-thawed pork were significantly lower
than those of NAT (p<0.05). DVT-thawed pork had a high water-holding
capacity (WHC, 97.5%). The hardness (34.59±0.46 N) and chewiness
(188.21±0.17) of cooked DVT-thawed pork were about 5-6 times lower than
those of NTA. Microstructure (SEM) showed myofibrillar damage in NAT-thawed
pork, whereas dense myofibrillar structure was observed in DVT-thawed pork. DVT
was better or similar to IVT in all evaluation parameters. The designed DVT is
expected to be used as an efficient thawing method in terms of processing time
and yield and to produce thawed meat with high WHC, soft texture, and low
spoilage by minimizing tissue damage.