Measurement of effective diffusivities of ionic and non-ionic solutes through beef and pork muscles using a diffusion...

A diffusion cell in conjunction with a new mathematical model was used to measure the apparent diffusion coefficients of sodium chloride, potassium nitrate and glucose through beef semitendinosus and pork longissimus dorsi muscles. The apparent diffusion coefficient was obtained within less than 180 min with a coefficient of variation less than 10% in most cases. The influence of temperature can be adequately explained by the Arrhenius-type law with activation energy between 19 and 26 kJ/mol depending on the diffusant. However, these values were not significantly different. Finally, we showed that the apparent diffusion coefficient of sodium chloride is not affected by the direction of the muscle fibre to the axes of diffusion while glucose diffusion parallel to the muscle fibre can be three times greater than diffusion at a right angle to the muscle fibre.