Evaluation of structural changes in raw and heated meat batters prepared with different lipids using Raman spectroscopy

Structural changes, textural properties, water- and fat-binding properties and their relationships in meat batters prepared with different lipids and with heating were studied by Raman spectroscopy. Results revealed that the meat batters prepared with soybean oil (SO) showed the lowest fluid losses, greatest (P<0.05) hardness, springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness, resilience values compared with batters prepared with pork fat (PF) or butter (DB). There was a significant decrease (P<0.05) in alpha-helix content accompanied by a significant increase (P<0.05) in beta-sheet structure after heating in PF and SO samples, but no significant (P>0.05) difference was found in DB batters. A positive significant (P<0.05) correlation between beta-sheet structure and textural properties was found in heated samples. Further, there was a significant positive (P<0.05) correlation between alpha-helical structure and total expressible fluid and a significant negative (P<0.05) correlation between beta-sheet structure and total expressible fluid. Results suggest that different lipid additions and thermal treatments induced different changes in meat proteins structural, expressible fluid, and textural properties of meat batters. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.