Abstract:
Cantonese soft-boiled chicken is famous for its tender meat and rich flavor, but its short shelf life and difficulty in preservation pose significant challenges to sales and promotion. To investigate preservation methods for this product, effects of four approaches including ice storage (IS), ice storage combined with chitosan (CS) immersion (IS+CS), ice storage combined with CS immersion and high-pressure processing (IS+CS+HPP) at two pressure levels (200 and 300 MPa) on the storage quality (pH value, color, texture parameters, shear force value, Total Viable Count (TVC), TVB-N value, TBARS value and sensory evaluation) of cantonese soft-boiled chicken were studied. The results showed that: During storage, there were no significant differences in
L*,
a*,
b* values, hardness, springiness, or chewiness of the soft-boiled chicken treated with the four aforementioned methods (
P>0.05). Compared with IS, both IS+CS and IS+CS+HPP inhibited the increase in pH value, TVC, TVB-N value, and TBARS value, while retarded the decline in shear force value and sensory evaluation score of chicken during storage, which implicated that those methods could significantly suppress microbial growth and mitigate quality deterioration of the chicken during storage. Furthermore, the IS+CS+HPP treatment at two pressure levels (200, 300 MPa) exhibited more outstanding preservation efficiency for soft-boiled chicken than the IS+CS treatment, but there was no obvious difference in the preservation effect between the two pressure levels (
P>0.05). The soft-boiled chicken preserved by IS+CS+HPP (300 MPa) achieved the lowest TVC (4.84 lg CFU/g), TVB-N value (10.81 mg/100g), and TBARS value (0.84 mg/kg), along with the highest sensory score (38) after 14 days of storage. The IS+CS treatment prolonged the shelf life of the chicken by 4 days, while the IS+CS+HPP treatment extended it by 8 days, indicating that there were synergistic effects among IS, CS, and HPP in prolonging the shelf life of Cantonese soft-boiled chicken. The findings of this research can provide reference and guidance for maintaining the quality, improving the safety, and extending the shelf life of Cantonese soft-boiled chicken products.