Effects of endpoint temperature and thickness on quality of whole muscle non-intact steaks cooked in a Radio Frequency oven

Proper cooking of non-intact beefsteaks (NIBS) products is of increasing concern due to the possible survival of foodborne pathogens potentially transferred from the surface to the interior of meat during tenderization operations. Slow heating from traditional cooking methods may cause overheating and quality deterioration in order to reach safe pathogen inactivation temperatures. Radio Frequency (RF) uses electromagnetic energy to heat foods with rapid heat distribution and its large penetration depth, which makes it a good alternative for cooking value added meat products such as NIBS. Blade tenderized steaks of different thicknesses (1.2, 1.9 and 2.5 cm) were randomly cooked to different endpoint temperatures (55, 65 and 75 degrees C) using a 6 kW pilot-scale RF oven. Thickness had a significant effect (P <= 0.05) on cooking time, heating rate and cooking and drip losses. However, physicochemical characteristics of NIBS were mainly affected by endpoint temperature. Higher drip, cooking loss, shear force and lower moisture content was reported for endpoint temperature of 75 degrees C steaks. Expressible moisture was higher (P <= 0.05) at 55 degrees C and further decreased as the temperature increased. Changes were mainly attributed to sample pretreatments and structural changes caused by protein denaturation during cooking. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.