Abstract:To systematically investigate the thawing characteristics of beef in multiple needle-to-plate electrode systems,thawing experiment of frozen beef were carried out with different needle spacings,and the thawing characteristics of beef were analyzed by infrared spectroscopy.The thawing time of beef under high-voltage electric field was 47.11 min,which was 2.535 times shorter than that of the control group.The drip loss of beef was reduced by 7.16%,the cooking loss was reduced by 3.21%,and the centrifugal loss was reduced by 2.72%.These results indicated that the high voltage electric field could not only accelerate the thawing time of beef but also improve the water holding capacity of beef.Different needle spacing can change the superposition of electric fields.The results of color and infrared spectrum showed that the needle spacing was best at 8 cm.By analyzing the double index sequence and the secondary structures of protein,it was found that the high voltage electric field has a great influence on the microstructure of beef.