Abstract
The effect of kiwi fruit juice on tenderness of pork for using daily cooking was investigated. The results obtained were as follows :
1) Evaluation of tenderness was made by a texturometer and sensory comparison. These results showed that the pork sorked for 20 min in the kiwi fruit juice, equivalent to 50% of the pork's weight, was in the optimum condition in terms of tenderness and deliciousness in our experimental conditions. On the other hand, because it lost the texture unique to meat and became too tender, the pork sorked in the kiwi fruit juice for 24 h was not liked by all panels.
2) The changes in muscular tissue treated with kiwi fruit juice were shown by microscopy. The myofibril located on the surface of the pork was granulated. As for the heated pork, these granules were piled on the surface of the pork.
3) The comparison in SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic pattern of myofibrils was made between the surface pork and the inside pork. It has been found out that the kiwi fruit juice treatment discomposed the myosin of the surface pork into 150, 000 dalton fragments.
These results suggest that pork becomes tender when the myofibrils on the surface granulate and it is the best way for daily cooking to sork pork for 20 min in the kiwi fruit juice equal to 50% of the pork's weight.
