Impact of high voltage electric field thawing on the quality of frozen tuna fish (Thunnus albacares)

Recently, high voltage electric field (HVEF) has been considered as a new technology in the food industry. Since this method has several benefits over conventional methods, the changes in the quality of tuna fish cuts under HVEF thawing were compared with those in control samples. The experimental tuna cubes were thawed under HVEF subjected to three different voltages from corona starting to breakdown voltage (4.5-14 kV) at electrode gaps of 3, 4.5, and 6 cm; the control being thawed at 20 °C without being subjected to HVEF. The results showed that thawing under HVEF significantly improves thawing rate and total volatile binding nitrogen of the frozen fish cubes. The highest thawing rate was 1.78 times greater than that obtained for the control samples. However, color, texture, and protein solubility of fish samples declined as a result of thawing under HVEF. Increasing the applied voltage decreased protein solubility and affected the hardness, gumminess, cohesiveness, and chewiness of the fish samples as compared to the control. The application of HVEF thawing has the potential of extending the freshness of thawed tuna fish.