Effect of plasma-activated water combined with low-voltage electric field-assisted thawing on the quality and protein structure of spotted sea bass.

The non-thermal processing technology of low-temperature plasma-activated water combined with a low-voltage electric field (PAW-LVEF) was employed to study the thawing characteristics and physicochemical properties of spotted sea bass. The results showed that PAW-LVEF assisted-thawing (PAW-LVEFT) improved the thawing rate compared to the other three thawing methods. The muscle tissue structure was better maintained and thus the water-holding capacity was enhanced. The turbidity, particle size, and surface hydrophobicity of MP in PAW-LVEFT treated samples were significantly reduced ( < 0.05), while the solubility was increased to 89.96 %. The Raman spectra demonstrated that the proportions of α-helix and β-sheet were raised to 53.56 % and 25.74 %, respectively. Intrinsic fluorescence and UV absorption spectroscopy also confirmed that PAW-LVEFT treatment provided better protection for the tertiary structure. In conclusion, PAW-LVEFT proved to be a high-efficiency physical thawing method and has a potential application value in the field of aquatic products thawing.