Fuente: Foods - Revista científica (MDPI) Foods, Vol. 15, Pages 925: Pigskin Collagen-Derived Antifreeze Peptides as Clean-Label Cryoprotectants: Inhibition of Ice Recrystallization and Suppression of Oxidative Deterioration in Heme-Rich Pork Sausages
Foods doi: 10.3390/foods15050925
Authors:
Wentao Xuan
Huiqin Wang
Guanzhen Gao
Jianwu Zhou
Xiaomei Xie
Zhixin Lin
Qiren Chen
Yixin Chen
Qiuhui Zeng
Daohuang Xu
Pingfan Rao
Leiwen Xiang

Frozen red meat products face dual challenges: structural damage from ice recrystallization and subsequent oxidative deterioration driven by endogenous pro-oxidants in heme-rich matrices. This study investigated the efficacy of pigskin collagen-derived antifreeze peptides (APPs) as clean-label cryoprotectants in pork sausages. In vitro characterization confirmed distinct thermal hysteresis (0.51 °C) and potent ice recrystallization inhibition. In the sausage system, 6% APPs overcame ionic screening effects, reducing thawing loss to 4.87% (vs. 7.51% in control) and cooking loss to 14.59%, significantly outperforming commercial phosphates in moisture retention. Low-field NMR revealed that APPs stabilized the actomyosin hydration shell, maintaining the immobilized water proportion (P21) at 93.67% (vs. 88.50% in control) and inhibiting conversion of immobilized water into free water. Furthermore, APPs suppressed oxidative deterioration, limiting protein carbonyl content to 3.08 nmol/mg (vs. 3.71 nmol/mg in control), supporting a “physical–chemical cascade” mechanism whereby superior microstructural preservation mitigates downstream oxidative deterioration. Despite a trade-off in textural resilience (0.37 vs. 0.44), APPs function as specialized “Ice-Structure Stabilizers” offering a robust clean-label strategy for preserving heme-rich meat products.