Effects of Different Thawing Methods on the Quality and Taste of Precocious Eriocheir sinensis

The 4℃ low temperature thawing,15℃ natural thawing,15℃ running water thawing (flow velocity of 100 mL/s),microwave thawing (power 150 MHz) were used to thawing the frozen precocious crab. By measuring the heating loss rate,pH,TBA value,TVB-N value,myofibrillar protein characteristics and free amino acid content as the parameters,the effects of thawing methods on the quality and taste of the crab meat were evaluated. The results showed that the low temperature thawing time was 675 min,which was the longest. The microwave thawing time was 5 min,which was the shortest. The natural thawing and running water thawing time were 135,52 min respectively. After microwave thawing,the thawing loss rate,the TBA value and surface hydrophobicity of the crab meat were the highest,which were 2.89%,0.29 mg/100 g and 53.54 μg respectively,and the content of total sulfhydryl group and activity sulfhydryl were the lowest,which were 69.09,64.16 nmol/mg respectively. The highest heating loss rate of the crab meat was 50.99% after natural thawing. The highest pH and TVB-N value of crab meat were 7.23 and 11.71 after low temperature thawing. After running water thawing,the pH,TVB-N value and surface hydrophobicity of the crab meat were the lowest,which were 6.95,10.60 and 35.29 μg respectively. The content of delicious amino acid and free amino acid in crab meat were 7.158,10.645 mg/g respectively,which were significantly higher than those of three other thawing methods,the quality and taste of the crab meat were better. Therefore,running water thawing was the most suitable thawing method for frozen precocious crab.