Impacts of fat types and myofibrillar protein on the rheological properties and thermal stability of meat emulsion systems

•Fat/oil type can affect physicochemical properties of meat emulsions.•High content of unsaturated fatty acids decreases thermal stability.•Animal fat has high hardness value and cooking loss.•Of all the emulsions, chicken fat emulsion was the most stable. Studies have shown the effects of fat or oil types and myofibrillar protein on meat emulsions. In this study, fat extracted from pork, beef, chicken, and duck, as well as corn oil, was used to emulsify the extracted porcine myofibrillar protein. We evaluated the thermal and rheological properties, emulsion stability, texture profiles, fatty acid compositions, and microstructures of these meat emulsions. Meat emulsions containing animal fat had lower emulsion stability and better thermal stability, rheological properties, and hardness than those containing oil. The ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the meat emulsion containing corn oil was the highest, followed by duck, chicken, pork, and beef fat emulsions. Of the animal fat emulsions, chicken might be the best fat source when emulsifying porcine protein because of the high thermal and emulsion stability, rheological properties, and fatty acid composition of the emulsion and well-distributed fat particles in it.