Effects of Different High-temperature Treatments on Physicochemical Properties and Taste Quality of Grass Carp Meat

This study aimed to study the effects of three current popular high-temperature treatments (electric roasting, air frying and superheated steam) on the physicochemical properties and taste quality of grass carp meat. Physicochemical properties were analyzed by measuring pH, water holding capacity, color value, thiobarbituric acid reactive substance and protein carbonyl content of fish meat. Taste quality was characterized by measuring the free amino acids content and flavor nucleotides content of fish meat. The results showed that compared with the raw grass carp meat in the control group, the indexes of physicochemical properties of grass carp meat processed by different high-temperature treatments were significantly increased in different degrees (P<0.05), which preliminarily revealed that the quality of fish meat would change differently under different high-temperature environments. After that, through the statistical analysis of two typical taste substances, free amino acids and flavor nucleotides, it was concluded that the content of taste substances in grass carp meat would also increase significantly after three high-temperature treatments (P<0.05). Among them, the change of air frying group was the most obvious, and its highest contents of free amino acids and flavor nucleotides were up to 338.78 mg/100 g and 1050.61 mg/100 g, which made it have the highest umami degree in the later stage. According to the comprehensive evaluation, three treatments all did not produce adverse performance in terms of physicochemical properties, air frying group performed well in terms of taste quality, indicating that grass carp meat treated by air frying had better edible quality.