Physical, Sensorial and Microbiological Properties of Ready Meals Uniformly Heated by Introducing Water Vapor under a Pressure Control Chamber

Abstract

　The objective of this study was to determine the effect of heating with water vapor using a pressure control chamber on quality and microbiological property of ready meals. Temperature of “kinpira-gobou” filled with plastic cups followed the temperature change of inside the chamber almost simultaneously. The max strength and the hardness score of “kinpira-gobou” heated at 80 ℃ for 1 min did not decrease at all compared with that of non-heated samples. Furthermore, the hardness score of the samples did not decrease when heated at 100 ℃ for 5 min or lower. Viable cell counts of “kinpira-gobou” heated at 80 ℃ for 1 min using a pressure control chamber were below 2.0 log CFU/g for 10 days at 10 ℃; however, that of non-heated samples stored at 10 ℃ were 4.4 and 7.2 log CFU/g at 3 and 7 days, respectively. These results indicated that the heating with water vapor using a pressure control chamber could extend shelf-life of ready meals with large void fraction, such as “kinpira-gobou”, without loss of textural properties.