圧力で肉が軟化？ ―食肉の高圧物性変換技術の開発

High pressure can accelerate post-mortem aging of meat, which results in improving meat tenderness. High hydrostatic pressure modifies conformation of intramuscular protein molecules, disorganizes the supermolecular structure, and then induces the structural weakening of myofibrils and intramuscular connective tissue. Although the effect of high-pressure processing on meat tenderizations is limited after cooking of meat, combining high pressure with sodium hydrogen carbonate treatments can improve texture and palatability of cooked meat and meat products. Science and technology of the high pressure processing for meat texture will be reviewed.