The Study of Thawing Characteristics and Mechanism of Frozen Beef in High Voltage Electric Field

The aim is to comprehensively and further explore the thawing characteristics and mechanism of frozen beef in high voltage electric field (HVEF). In this paper, the frozen beef was thawed under blocking ionic wind and changing voltage, electrode distance in the high voltage electric field system. The thawing characteristics, quality parameters and microstructure of beef during thawing were measured. The results showed that compared with the control, high voltage electric field could significantly shorten the thawing time of beef. During the thawing process, the influence of the high voltage electric field in the beef center temperature range from -5 °C to 0 °C on the thawing characteristics is larger than the control. Electrode distance and voltage have significant influence on color, loss rate and quality parameters. The experimental results of blocking ionic wind showed that ionic wind and non-uniform electric field have different effects on the characteristic parameters, quality parameters and microstructure of beef. Both the ionic wind and non-uniform electric field played a significant role in thawing process. This study provides theoretical basis and practical guidance for further understanding of the parameter characteristics and thawing mechanism of high voltage electric field thawing technology.