Feasibility assessment of vacuum cooling followed by immersion vacuum cooling on water-cooked pork

Vacuum cooling followed by immersion vacuum cooling was designed to cool water-cooked pork (1.5 ± 0.05 kg) compared with air blast cooling (4 ± 0.5 °C, 2 m/s), vacuum cooling (10 mbar) and immersion vacuum cooling. This combined cooling method was: vacuum cooling to an intermediate temperature of 25 °C and then immersion vacuum cooling with water of 10 °C to the final temperature of 10 °C. It was found that the cooling loss of this combined cooling method was significantly lower (P < 0.05) than those of air blast cooling and vacuum cooling. This combined cooling was faster (P < 0.05) than air blast cooling and immersion vacuum cooling in terms of cooling rate. Moreover, the pork cooled by combined cooling method had significant differences (P < 0.05) in water content, color and shear force.