Synergistic effect of sous-vide and fruit-extracted enzymes on pork tenderization

A combination of sous-vide (SV) and enzymatic treatment (one commercial, Neutrase (NE), and two fruit-extracted enzymes obtained from kiwifruit and pineapple, KE and PE, respectively) was applied to pork fore shanks prepared at different temperatures (45, 60, 70, and 100 °C) for 0.5, 4 or 8 h, and the properties of pork were compared. For the hardness, SV itself resulted in a 27% decrease; however, a significant softening effect could be obtained by the addition of enzymes (38-60%). The KE treatment appeared to be more effective (~ 60%) than either the PE or the NE treatment. During SV, both the L* and b* values of the samples generally increased while the a* value decreased. Among the samples, the lowest hardness was obtained for the sample treated with SV-KE at 70 °C for 8 h, and the lowest total microbial count, lowest pH and the least amount of color change were also observed for the sample.