Estimating the structure of sarcoplasmic proteins extracted from pork tenderloin thawed by a high-voltage electrostatic field

The application of high-voltage electrostatic field (HVEF) is a novel method of thawing. To determine if HVEF thawing could lead to sarcoplasmic proteins denaturation, and to provide a theoretical estimation of the structure of the sarcoplasmic proteins, pork tenderloin was thawed by traditional and HVEF methods. The results from protein solubility analysis, sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimeter showed that HVEF thawing did not result in more protein denaturation than those thawed under air or running water. From the principal component analysis of FTIR raw spectra (1700–1600 cm−1, Amide I region), we observed some separations of samples with different thawing treatments. It was found that the proportions of α-helix (1650–1640 cm−1 spectral bands in the original data) could lead to the differences on the PC2 axis of score plots.