Texturing of Chicken Breast Meat as an Innovative Way to Intensify Drying: Use of a Coupled Washing/Diffusion CWD Phenomenological Model to Enhance Kinetics and Functional Properties

Abstract

In the present study, instant controlled pressure drop (DIC) was used as a novel texturing pretreatment of fresh chicken breast meat, before hot airflow drying, in order to modify the texture of the meat and obtain a controlled expansion. Three different drying techniques were compared: conventional hot airflow drying, freeze drying, and swell drying (a combination of DIC and hot airflow drying). DIC was carried out under various conditions in order to achieve multi-criteria optimization. A two-parameter, five-level response surface methodology was used to optimize the operating parameters of saturated steam pressure and thermal holding time, starting with the meat's initial water content. Saturated steam pressure had a significant impact on the expansion ratio. The higher the expansion ratio, the better the different functional qualities. Microstructural changes reduced drying time, and increased rehydration kinetics and water holding capacity (WHC). The starting accessibility δW_s and the internal effective water diffusivity D_eff were studied for both drying and rehydration processes in accordance with the coupled washing/diffusion (CWD) phenomenological model.

Keywords:

• Expansion ratio
• Meat
• Rehydration ability
• Swell drying
• Water holding capacity

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author thanks Dr. Egle Conforto from LaSIE (University of La Rochelle) for carrying out microscopy analysis, and ABCAR-DIC PROCESS SAS (La Rochelle, France) for providing dryer equipment, and lab-scale and pilot-scale DIC units.