In this study, the effect of thawing temperature on drip loss
of frozen beef brisket has been explored. Drip loss depends on
thawing temperature as well as the rate of thawing. Experimental results indicate that the drip loss from frozen samples increased
with increasing thawing temperature. Sayre et al. [19] reported
that there were no significant differences in the amount of drip
from porcine muscles that were thawed at 1 and 7 o
C whereas
a greater amount of drip loss was obtained from the thawed
muscles at 20 o
C. Yu et al. [20] also showed that the drip losses
of frozen chicken breast and leg muscles thawed at 18 o
C
were greater than those from the samples were thawed at 2 o
C
and 0 o
C. The observations are fundamentally in line with the
results in the present experiment. At the higher temperature,
it means higher thawing rate, Pham [21] suggested that water
was given inadequate time in order to be reabsorbed into the
cellular structure as a result of fast thawing. Furthermore, it
was thought that the water loss came from the volume changes
of the myofibrils during thawing. The cross linkage between
actin and myosin caused the shrinkage of myofibrils resulted
in the higher amount of free water which could be lost from
the muscle. Therefore, the higher thawing temperature was,
increased muscle shortening, resulting in increased drip loss