The Change in Quality Characteristics of Hanwoo in Home Meal Replacement Products under Different Cooking and Freezing Methods

The market size of home meal replacement (HMR) products has been gradually growing worldwide, even in Korea. In Korean HMR products, meat is the most important food ingredient compared with rice and vegetables. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate changes in physiochemical and sensory aspects of beef under different preparation processes. For preparing four treatments, beef eye of round (ER) added with salt and sugar (treatment 1) and that without salt and sugar (treatment 2) were mixed with rice and frozen at −50°C. Beef ER without salt and sugar was also topped onto the rice and frozen (treatment 3), and that was topped onto the rice and precooled before freezing (treatment 4). Physiochemical analyses included cooking and drip losses, shear force, color, salt soluble protein, and sensory attributes were tested. The results showed significantly higher drip loss and total loss in beef ER samples 1 and 2, which were mixed with rice, compared to beef ER samples 3 and 4, which were not mixed with rice. A significantly higher discoloration was also observed in beef ER samples 1 and 2, compared to that in samples 3 and 4. In the partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis, beef ER sample 4 (precooled before freezing) was highly related to sensory attributes, such as flavor, overall acceptability, and juiciness, and far from non-preferred shear force. As a result, beef ER in HMR sample 4 was the most preferable to the sensory panel, and it had the most desirable physicochemical analysis outcomes.