Evaluation of the effects of sodium chloride, potassium nitrate and sodium tripolyphosphate on the thawing process of pork ribs

Abstract

Properly thawing meat, in this case pig ribs, means that factors such as the meat’s hydration, the conservation of its weight, its nutritional features and its duration must be taken into consideration. In order to generate a protocol capable of aiding to preserve such properties will allow Cárnicos Stefany to fittingly handle their product respecting its physicochemical, microbiological and organoleptic properties. In accordance to the aforesaid, the loss of weight due to dehydration in the finished product is avoided and, thus, the income of the company is increased. To this end, five treatments that are based on dissolutions of three different additives - sodium chloride (NaCL), potassium nitrate (KNO3 ) and Sodium tripolyphosphate (Na5 P3 O10) - were employed. Such treatments were conducted at room temperature (between 19 and 22 C) and at a different refrigeration temperatures (between 0 and 3 C) altering the concentration of the aforementioned additives (1%, 3% and 5%), as well as the combination amongst them (individual additives, Sodium chloride-polyphosphate and Potassium nitrate-polyphosphate). These procedures were executed in order to determine with which treatment the best thawing results were achieved by basing the analysis on the assessment of the physicochemical, microbiological and organoleptic features of the post-treatment ribs. Additionally, the most efficient protocol considering the times of thawing and weight of the raw material was generated.