Effect on pork product quality with shorter freezing times
BACKGROUND
About 30% of the Danish pork export is sold as deboned, frozen meat ready for further processing or for catering (table meat). The quality of the meat after thawing will depend on the freezing process. 70% of the meat is water that during the freezing process changes from fluid to a solid form.
Støier & Borup (1995) found that the rate of freezing, defined as the time it takes the temperature of a product to decrease from 5C to a core temperature of 12C, has a great impact on the quality of the product. When the water starts freezing ice crystals will develop. These crystals will increase as more and more water freezes on the surface of the ice crystals. The rate of freezing is important with respect to the number and size of the ice crystals. A quick freezing process will generate many small nuclei and crystals, whereas a slow freezing process results in few nuclei and big crystals.