Abstract:Stewed mutton in northern Shaanxi is popular among consumers, but lack of industrialized products, in order to screen out the appropriate sterilization method of products, prolong the shelf life of products. This research adopts pasteurization, boiling water bath sterilization, high temperature sterilization for stewed mutton, through the sensory evaluation was carried out on the stewed mutton, the determination of the moisture, protein, fat, texture characteristics, color, comprehensive evaluation of the three kinds of stewed mutton quality of change and predict the shelf life of stewed mutton using the zero order reaction kinetics equation and Arrhenius equation to. The results showed that the sensory scores of the three sterilization groups were significantly higher than control group (P<0.05), the highest score in the high temperature sterilization group increased by 23.51%. The fat content of the three sterilization groups was significantly increased (P<0.05), the moisture content in the high temperature sterilization group was significantly increased, while the protein content was significantly decreased (P<0.05). Compared with the control group, the L* value in boiling water bath sterilization and high temperature sterilization groups were significantly decreased by 4.52% and 8.72% (P<0.05), the a* values were increased significantly by 25.15%-150.00% after three sterilization methods (P<0.05). The hardness, chewiness, springiness, cohesiveness and resilience of the high temperature sterilization group were significantly decreased (P<0.05), the resilience of pasteurization group was significantly increased (P<0.05). High temperature sterilization had the greatest effect on the color and texture characteristics of stewed mutton. The electronic nose could distinguish different sterilization methods well, and the high temperature sterilization group showed the highest flavor response intensity. The shelf life of the high temperature sterilization group was predicted, the final prediction of the shelf life of stewed mutton at 4, 25 ℃ and 37 ℃ were 140, 86 d and 67 d, respectively. In conclusion, the three sterilization methods can change the nutrition, sensory quality and flavor of stewed mutton, and high temperature sterilization can significantly improve the color, flavor and acceptability of stewed mutton, which is suitable for industrial production of stewed mutton in northern Shaanxi.