Developing Combined Radio Frequency with Water Bath Treatments to Improve Gel Properties of Minced Chicken Breast

Heat-induced gel properties are important indicators for evaluating meat quality. Conventional water bath (WB) heating is a common method for processing gelatin meat products, but the longer heating times have some adverse effects on their network structures. Therefore, this study aimed to explore a novel approach by combining radio frequency (RF) processing with WB heating to improve the gel properties of minced chicken breast. Effects of electrode gaps (110, 115, and 120 mm) and sample diameters (42, 49, and 56 mm) on RF heating rate and uniformity were investigated under a fixed sample height of 80 mm. The heating time and gel quality changes after RF + WB (55, 60, 65, 70 celcius) at different transition temperature, single RF, and sole WB treatments were also compared. The results showed that when the electrode gap was 110 mm, the sample with a diameter of 49 mm and a height of 80 mm provided the optimized heating uniformity and required processing time. The combination of RF and WB processes reduced cooking time by 17 to 44% compared to single WB heating (34.8 min). Furthermore, the RF + WB (65 celcius) treatment exhibited the better gel quality or texture, and smoother microstructure of minced chicken breast compared to the other applications, the water holding capacity (WHC) value of the sample reached the maximum (78%), and the gel strength increased by 64.32%. This study demonstrated that RF + WB (65 celcius) heating might be presented as an efficient method to improve the gel properties of minced chicken breast with its environmental-friendly features in the view of process sustainability.