Application of ultrasound-assisted vacuum impregnation for improving the diffusion of salt in beef cubes

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different vacuum impregnation (VI) conditions (Control, VI-250, VI-500, VI-750, US-VI-250, US-VI-500 and US-VI-750) on the salt gain (SG) and water gain (WG) kinetics of beef cubes. The cubes were immersed in brine solution (4 g NaCl/ 100 g solution) and salted at different levels of vacuum (250, 500 and 750 mbar) using VI method with and without ultrasound. The final moisture and salt contents of the cubes were 78.60% and 1.59%, respectively, and the samples were salted the fastest with US-VI-250. Five kinetic models were selected to evaluate the SG and WG kinetics, and Azuara model exhibited the best fit. In addition, the salt (D_s) and moisture (D_w) diffusion coefficients were in the range of 5.94-8.11 × 10^-9 m²/s and 5.17-8.64 × 10^-9 m²/s, respectively. It can be concluded that the ultrasound-assisted VI could shorten the brining time by improving the salt diffusion in beef cubes.