High pressure processing of meat and fish

The effects of pressure treatment (50-800 MPa) on the eating (textural, fla vour and colour) quality of meat and fish is reviewed. Due to the relative stabilisation of the weak linkages maintaining the structure of the myofibr illar proteins it will be shown that pressure treated meat and fish has a d ifferent texture to that of its thermally processed counterpart. However, a s the pressure induced structures are, to some extent, stabilised by hydrog en bonds, subsequent heat treatment partially melts the myosin gel formed t o yield a texture not too dissimilar to that obtained on heat alone. After treatment above 400 MPa the lipids in both meat and fish become very suscep tible to autoxidation, due, it is thought to the release of transition meta l catalysts (iron and perhaps copper) from non-haem iron complexes present in the tissue. The flesh of both cod muscle and that of white meats (turkey ) take on a cooked appearance at pressures that cause myosin to denature (2 00 MPa in cod and 400 MPa in turkey). In the redder meats myoglobin is irre versibly denatured at pressures of 400 MPa and above to produce a pigment t hat is spectrally similar to that found in cooked meat. The relevance of th ese findings to the pressure processing of meat and fish is discussed.