Flash heating process for efficient meat preservation

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47967-1
• Publication Date: 2024-05-08T18:02:20Z
• Authors: Yimin Mao; Peihua Ma; Tangyuan Li; He Liu; Xinpeng Zhao; Shufeng Liu; Xiaoxue Jia; Shaik O. Rahaman; Xizheng Wang; Minhua Zhao; Gang Chen; Hua Xie; Alexandra H. Brozena; Bin Zhou; Yaguang Luo; Rodrigo Tarté; Cheng-I Wei; Qin Wang; Robert M. Briber; Liangbing Hu
• Keywords: Meat; Hot Temperature; Food Safety; Science; Q; 600; Article; Heating; Red Meat; Food Preservation; Food Microbiology; Animals; Cattle; DegreeDisciplines::Life Sciences::Animal Sciences::Meat Science

Abstract Maintaining food safety and quality is critical for public health security. Conventional preservation methods, such as pasteurization dehydration, often change the overall organoleptic of products. Herein, we demonstrate a method that affects only thin surface layer food, using beef model. In this method, Joule heating generated by applying high electric power to carbon substrate in <1 s, which causes transient increase temperature > ~2000 K. The direct contact with subjected ultra-high flash heating, leading formation microbe-inactivated, dehydrated ~100 µm thickness. Aerobic mesophilic bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, yeast mold on treated samples are inactivated level below detection limit remained low during room storage 5 days. Meanwhile, product quality, including visual appearance, texture, nutrient beef, remains mostly unchanged. contrast, microorganisms grow rapidly untreated control samples, along rapid deterioration meat quality. This might serve promising technology securing