Effects of High Pressure Treatments and Added Binders on the Physico-Chemical Properties of Restructured Pork Meat

In general, the application of HP contributes to improvement of functionalities of meat protein. In the current study, HP allowed the lower thermal processing of restructured meat product. Low thermal processing allowed fresh-like meat color which is one of problems in hot-set restructuring, while they showed slight discolorization induced by HP. In addition, HP processing combined with thermal processing could be achieved the palatable binding strength in restructured meat product. The addition of non-meat protein had an effect in binding strength. However, they showed no effect on water binding properties at 200 MPa, especially in milk proteins such as casein and whey protein. This is probably due to protein aggregation or to increase in surface hydrophobicity under HP. This result indicates that the application of HP on meat restructuring is more significant than the addition of binders. Therefore, the application of HP has apotential benefit in restructured meat product, and further investigations are needed.