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) and moisture (D) diffusion coefficients were in the range of 5.94-8.11 × 10 m/s and 5.17-8.64 × 10 m/s, respectively. It can be concluded that the ultrasound-assisted VI could shorten the brining time by improving the salt diffusion in beef cubes.