3.4. Brine injection
In the poultry industry, salt and phosphate solutions (brine) have
been injected into the meat prior to freezing to promote the tenderness,
juiciness and flavour of the final product. Pietrasik and Janz
(2009) recently evaluated the use of brine injection to combat the
exudate loss upon thawing of beef. They found that the purge loss
was significantly lower in injected samples compared to the noninjected
control, but the tenderness and colour (CIE a*) of the former
samples were significantly decreased. In this study it was reported
that the injection of beef with brine solutions prior to freezing
increased the consumer's purchase intent and degree of liking of the
products. Therefore, this mitigation method appears to be an inexpensive
and commercially applicable solution to decreasing purge
losses upon thawing.