4. Conclusions
An optimized ohmic cooking condition was used to obtain semi-cooked meatballs and some toxicological and mutagenic aspects were considered. Also high cooking yield, moisture retention and fat retention values in samples were obtained with ohmic cooking. Ohmic cooking conducted at defined condition was sufficient to eliminate Salmonella and S. aureus, which were naturally found in meatball samples, while it was not effective in the elimination of L. monocytogenes. For the elimination of this risk, future studies should be carried out by using combined cooking methods. According to the results of the sensory analysis, overall visual acceptance of the meatball samples was “good”. Ohmic treatment seems to be promising cooking method for meatballs in terms of PAHs formation. Additionally, more extensive studies into pathogenic bacteria inactivation should be determined in following studies