Effect of high-pressure processing on the quality characteristics and shelf-life stability of hanwoo beef marinated with various sauces

The effects of high-pressure processing (HPP) treatment on the quality characteristics of low graded Hanwoo beef marinated with five different sauces (soy, fish, fish-soy, soy-fish and fish-soy-meat sauces) obtained from Asian countries were studied. The Hanwoo beef striploins were marinated with the aforementioned sauces (at ratio: 3:1 w/w) for 3 days at 4℃ before they were treated with HPP at 550 MPa for 5 min at 10℃. All the sauces used were equalized to a same salt level of 12.5%, and the samples marinated with a 12.5% brine solution were served as a control. After treating with the HPP, all the samples were stored for further 7 days at 4℃ for analyses. Results revealed that HPP treatments showed some effects on technological quality traits (pH, cooking loss and color) but had no effect on the collagen contents of the marinated beef. Noticeably, the HPP treatment led to the increases in amounts of free amino acids associated with monosodium glutamate–like taste and sweet taste in the samples marinated with fish sauce or soy-fish sauce, fish-soy sauce and fish-soy-meat sauce whereas, it only reduced these amino acids in the samples marinated with soy sauce or control. Furthermore, the total bacteria count in all the marinated beef samples treated with HPP were significantly (p<0.05) lower than those of the non-HPP-treated samples throughout the storage periods. It is concluded that HPP could be applied for enhancing the taste-active compounds production such as free amino acids, and improving the shelf-life stability of the marinated beef.