How to choose and eat cold fresh meat, hot fresh meat and frozen meat

There are fresh meat and frozen meat on the market, and the common types of fresh meat are cold fresh meat and hot fresh meat. Which one is better in terms of nutrition, taste and safety? How should we choose and eat it? Let's find out together.

Fresh meat is nutritious and of high quality. Fresh meat refers to meat that has been processed through a cooling process after being slaughtered, and the ambient temperature is always maintained at 0°C-4°C during the operation. After being slaughtered, the muscle tissue of livestock and poultry needs to go through stages such as rigor mortis, thawing, and maturation before it can become meat suitable for eating. After being cooled, fresh meat enters the thawing and maturation stages from the rigor mortis stage. Under the action of enzymes, the muscle tissue becomes soft, juicy, and elastic, making it easier to chew. It also produces amino acids and umami substances that are easier to digest and absorb, increasing the taste of the meat and improving the aroma of the meat. During the cooling process, a slightly dry outer membrane will form on the surface of the meat, which helps to reduce the loss of juice in the meat and retain the nutrients of the meat to the greatest extent.

It is more reassuring to buy and eat fresh meat immediately. When buying fresh meat, you should choose supermarkets or farmers' markets with complete certificates and licenses and equipped with low-temperature refrigeration equipment such as refrigerators, and pay attention to whether the sales environment is at 0℃-4°CC. Choose fresh meat that is soft and elastic, and whose depression recovers immediately after being pressed, and avoid buying meat that is hard and whose depression recovers slowly or is difficult to recover after being pressed. In order to maintain the nutrition and taste of fresh meat, it is recommended to buy and eat it immediately. If it needs to be stored for a short time, the refrigeration time should not exceed 3 hours. When cooking, pay attention to separating raw and cooked food, and cooking thoroughly. Hot fresh meat has a poor taste and is difficult to guarantee nutritional safety. Hot fresh meat refers to meat that is circulated and sold directly at room temperature after the poultry is slaughtered without cooling process. Hot fresh meat is usually slaughtered in the early morning and sold on the market early in the morning. It is named because the core temperature of the meat just slaughtered is around 40℃-42°C. The time from slaughtering to selling hot fresh meat is short, and the muscle tissue is still in the rigor mortis period. The meat is dry and hard, less tender, and has reduced water retention. Nutrients are easily lost, the flavor and aroma of the meat are light, and the quality is relatively low.

During the transportation and sales of hot fresh meat, the environmental hygiene and temperature are difficult to guarantee, which can easily breed bacteria and accelerate the spoilage of meat. Hot fresh meat from unknown sources may also pose a risk of disease if it has not been quarantined by animals. Hot fresh meat must be cooked thoroughly to ensure safety. When purchasing hot fresh meat, try to choose supermarkets or farmers' markets with complete certificates and good sanitary environments. When purchasing, pay attention to checking the animal product quarantine certificate, animal quarantine inspection stamp, etc., and avoid buying hot fresh meat with a sticky surface, abnormal color and odor. To ensure food safety, it is recommended to purchase on demand and eat immediately after purchase. When cooking, pay attention to separating raw and cooked food and cooking thoroughly.

Frozen meat is prone to spoilage if it is frozen for a long time. Frozen meat is meat that is frozen at -18°C after live animals (pigs, cattle, sheep, rabbits, etc.) and poultry (chickens, ducks, geese, etc.) are slaughtered and processed. Low temperature inhibits the growth and reproduction of microorganisms and slows down the rate of biochemical reactions in meat, thereby extending the shelf life of meat. Under freezing conditions, the oxidation of protein and fat in meat is still slow, so if the meat is frozen for a long time, the quality will deteriorate and odor and harmful substances may be produced. Fresh meat bought from the supermarket is prone to cross-contamination during the home freezing process, and the temperature fluctuations caused by the frequent opening and closing of the refrigerator door will also accelerate the reproduction of microorganisms and shorten the storage time of the meat. Therefore, it is recommended that the frozen meat stored in the refrigerator should be eaten within 3 months as much as possible.

There are some particular ways to defrost frozen meat. In order to maintain the nutrition, taste and safety of the meat, it is best to put the meat in the refrigerator at 0℃-4℃ for slow defrosting, so that the juice in the meat can slowly penetrate back into the muscle tissue. You can also put the sealed frozen meat in cold water for slow defrosting. Avoid soaking the frozen meat directly in hot water. If you want to speed up the thawing, you can use a microwave oven with a defrosting function. When thawing, the meat should not be too large, and it is better to be flat. Select the lowest microwave power or defrosting power, and the time should not be too long. You can set it for 1 minute first, and then continue after observing the thawing effect.

Repeated thawing of frozen meat should be avoided. Frozen meat will lose a lot of nutrients after repeated thawing, and the edible quality will continue to decline. It is also easy to breed a large number of bacteria. Studies have found that the total number of colonies in frozen meat is 15 times that of the original after thawing four times. It is recommended to divide the purchased fresh meat into multiple portions according to the amount to be eaten at one time, seal it with a fresh-keeping bag or wrap it with plastic wrap, and then store it in the freezer of the refrigerator. If the refrigerator has a quick-freezing function, you can first freeze the meat for half an hour and then freeze it for storage. When eating, take out an appropriate amount of frozen meat to thaw and cook it thoroughly.