Research Advances in the Effect of Dielectric Thawing on the Quality of Raw Meat

Thawing is an important unit operation in the processing of frozen meat. Some of the major concerns for its application are thawing duration, temperature uniformity, juice loss, cooking loss, freshness, texture characteristics and taste changes. Good thawing quality for frozen meat can be obtained by choosing appropriate thawing technologies and processing parameters. The traditional thawing technologies include air thawing and water immersion thawing, while several novel physical field thawing methods have been developed include microwave thawing, radio-frequency thawing, infrared thawing and ohmic thawing. The microwave and radio-frequency methods, which both utilize high-frequency electromagnetic wave as excitation source, have seen increasing application in the field of frozen meat processing because of short operating time and high efficiency. This article reviews dielectric thawing technology, summarizes its key influential factors, discusses the changes in meat quality during the dielectric thawing process, and puts forward some thoughts regarding the common problems and future research directions in dielectric thawing.