Effect of different drying time on the relationship between water distribution and quality of dried pork slices

The effect of different drying time( 2,3,4,5 h) on water distribution and the quality of dried pork slices at60 ℃ were mainly investigated in this paper. The yield,shear force,water activity,moisture content,color,T_2 relaxation time and sensory properties were measured respectively,and the principal component analysis( PCA)was used to estimate their correlations.The results showed that with the increasing the drying time,the yield,water activity,moisture content,b*-value were decreased significantly( p < 0.05),while the L*-value,a*-value and shear force were significantly increased( p < 0.05),the best sensory valuation was acquired at 4 h( p < 0.05). The PCA results suggested the positive linear correlations were obtained among the variation of T_21,T_23,water activity,water content and yield of dried pork slices,and negatively correlated with shear force. The results indicated that the influence of different drying time on dried pork slices quality mainly related to water migrating in meat.