The amount of salt soluble proteins (Table 2) was different
(Pb0.05) between treated and controls. Salt soluble protein content
was reduced 17.8% in treated compared with control samples which
may correspond with lower values for both binding strength and
texture profile analysis. HPP appears to decrease myofibrillar protein
functionality explaining the inability of NaCl to extract these proteins
or for them to bind to each other. Previous research has indicated the
opposite and concluded that HPP increased myofibrillar protein
solubility, even at higher pressures (Macfarlane, 1974; Suzuki et al.,
1991). However, it should be noted that all of those experiments were
conducted with meat pressurized after suspension in a saline solution.
This suggests that myofibrillar protein extraction was occurring prior
to and was possibly improved during HPP. It is probable that
functionality changes that occurred to proteins during HPP in the
current study made proteins less susceptible to extraction when
introduced to saline solution during analysis.