Improvement of Freezing Quality of Food by Pre-dehydration with Microwave-Vacuum Drying

Partial dehydration by microwave vacuum drying has been applied to tuna, oyster and mackerel prior to freezing in order to reduce quality damages due to freezing and thawing. Samples were dehydrated at pressure of 4kPa and temperature lower than 25 degrees C. Two cooling conditions were tested in the experiment by using the freezing chamber of temperatures -20 degrees C and -80 degrees C. The experimental results showed that decreasing the water content in tuna could lower the freezing point temperature and made the freezing time shorter. It was also found that removing some water was effective to reduce the size of ice crystal and the drip loss in mackerel. After thawing, the pre-dehydrated mackerel showed better microstructure than that frozen without pre-treatment. Furthermore, the sensory tests have been done by a group of panelist for the evaluation on aroma, flavor, and general acceptability of mackerels.