Changes of protein profiles in pork and beef meat caused by high hydrostatic pressure treatment

In the experiments pork loin and beef sirloin were treated by pressures of 100 to 600 MPa by 100 MPa steps for 5 min. Colour changes of samples and the changes of proteins were investigated. The latter were examined with isoelectric focusing and SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. We found that myoglobin behaved completely differently in case of the two different species. Myoglobin has mostly lost its native state at 300 MPa pressure in case of pork, but the beef myoglobin could remain native even up to 500 MPa. The treatment at 300 MPa or higher pressure values caused almost complete aggregation and denaturation in case of pork and beef proteins. The results of SDS-PAGE and the colour measurement confirmed this finding

Physicochemical and Microbiological Changes of Bovine Blood Due to High Hydrostatic Pressure Treatment

Bovine blood samples were treated with high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) to examine the changes that may occur in the blood related to its colour, microbiological characteristics, protein denaturation, and dynamic viscosity. Pressure treatments were carried out from 100 to 600 MPa in 100 MPa scale up, with 5 min holding time. The blood samples were treated with anticoagulant (EDTA) to eliminate the possible measurement distorting effects. We found that 2 log reduction in the microbial load could be achieved with a pressure treatment above 400 MPa. According to the protein denaturation measurements (DSC), blood proteins were resistant to pressure treatment, even at 300–400 MPa a substantial part of proteins remained in native state. The colour of the samples got darker with the rising pressure, however, visible colour change was observed only above 400 MPa. It can be established, that the HHP treatment was suitable to increase the microbiological stability of blood, without significantly changing its techno-functional properties