A DSC STUDY OF THE THERMAL PROPERTIES OF DRY-CURED HAM

摘要

The differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) study of a dry-cured ham revealed two thermal phase transition events in dry-cured ham: the freezing of the moisture and the glass transition. The freezing point of dry-cured ham was found to be in the range between -12.5 and -14.4°C. Thus the storing temperature of the product can be decreased to -10.0 for shelf-life extension without ice formation. The inflection point of the glass transition of the salted meat and the dry-cured ham was lower when compared with fresh pork (-85.0 vs -71.0°C). The amount of unfreezable water was also higher (22.0% vs 6.8%), which was explained by salting and ripening processes. The application of a new DSC Tzero technology helped to define the heat capacity of the product in the temperature range from -10.0 to +20.0°C, which can reduce the error of the heat loads calculation.