Effect of refrigeration and frozen storage of raw chicken breast and pork on the quality of sous-vide cooked products

Beyene, Yosef Alemneh and Dalmadi, István and Kenesei, György (2025) Effect of refrigeration and frozen storage of raw chicken breast and pork on the quality of sous-vide cooked products. PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING SCIENCES, 21 (1). pp. 443-459. ISSN 1786-335X

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Abstract

This study investigated the effects of two storage conditions on the quality characteristics of sous-vide cooked chicken breast and pork loin. Refrigeration (for 2 and 10 days at 3 °C) and freezing (for 10 days and 6 months at −25 °C) were used as pretreatments in the experiment, and then the samples were cooked sous-vide for 45 min at 60 °C. Pork showed a higher post-cooking loss (8.06–26.88%) than chicken, which showed a substantial increase in weight loss from 0.2% (2 days refrigerated) to 3.90% (6 months frozen) prior to cooking and from 5.43 to 7.09% following sous-vide. Sous-vide processing raised the pH values of pork from 5.70 to 6.06 and pre-cooked, 6-month frozen chicken from 5.87 to 6.21. Following sous-vide, lightness (L*) increased significantly, reaching 75.96 for pork (long-term frozen) and 79.99 for chicken (short-term refrigerated). Lipid oxidation, measured by thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), increased with storage and cooking, with the highest values in sous-vide samples stored refrigerated long-term (3.27 mg MDA/kg chicken, 3.53 mg MDA/kg pork). Sensory evaluation showed the highest overall acceptance (4.67/5) in chicken stored refrigerated short-term, while frozen long-term samples retained acceptable quality (4.17/5). These findings demonstrate that storage duration and conditions significantly influence weight loss, texture, lipid oxidation, color, and sensory attributes in sous-vide cooked meat, emphasizing the importance of optimal storage for quality preservation. It should be noted that the thickness of the two samples (chicken breast and pork loin) is different, and both cross-species comparisons and differences among storage conditions should be interpreted with caution.

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