Influence of sodium tripolyphosphate (STP) treatment and cooking time on cook losses and textural properties of red meats

Sodium tripolyphosphates (STPs) are important functional additives used in meat products. STPs reduce cook losses and improve textural properties, especially by increasing the water-holding capacity of proteins. However, increases in cooking time or temperature enhance meat proteins' denaturation, resulting in a reduced water-holding capacity. The amount of STPs diffused into meats would play an important role for these changes. Therefore, the objectives of this research were to determine the effects of processing conditions (cooking time, STP concentration and dipping time) on cook losses and textural properties of red meats, and to relate these changes with diffused amount of STPs. For this purpose, meats (2 x 2 x 2 cm in size) were dipped in different concentrations of STP solutions (2, 4 and 6%) for 10, 20 and 30 min, and were cooked in boiling water for 5, 10 and 15 min. Cook losses were calculated from weight changes, and textural properties were determined by applying texture profile analysis to data obtained using Texture Analyzer TA-XT2i (Stable Micro Systems, Godalming, Surrey, U.K.). STPs were found to decrease cook losses and hardness values. While an increase in STP concentration increased cohesiveness, increase in cooking time resulted in higher hardness, gumminess, chewiness and cook losses. An increase in dipping times also decreased the cook losses and hardness. The results showed that STP concentration, STP dipping and cooking times had significant effects on the changes of textural properties and cook losses of meats. These results may be used for further meat processing optimization studies if they get correlated with sensory data obtained at the same conditions.