Superheated Steam as a Promising Pretreatment for Braised Pork: Enhancing Processing Yield, Texture Attributes, and Storage Stability

ABSTRACT Quality deterioration during cooking and storage, particularly moisture loss, lipid oxidation, and microbial spoilage, remains a major challenge for braised pork. This study evaluated superheated steam (SHS; 180°C ± 2°C, 50 s, 25 kg h −1 ) as a pretreatment alternative for braised pork and compared it with traditional blanching (BLA; boiling water, 2 min) in terms of processing quality during stewing, oxidative stability, and shelf‐life estimation. Through a comprehensive quality assessment, the results revealed that SHS pretreatment significantly reduced cooking loss at 90 min (16.79% ± 0.54% vs. 20.21% ± 0.87% for BLA; p < 0.05), enhanced moisture retention, and improved color/texture attributes of braised pork. SHS also resulted in lower initial peroxide value (POV; 0.04 ± 0.01 vs. 0.07 ± 0.01 g 100 g −1 ), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS; 0.28 ± 0.02 vs. 0.45 ± 0.03 mg kg −1 ), and protein carbonyl content (1.19 ± 0.10 vs. 1.60 ± 0.03 nmol mg −1 ). During storage, SHS‐treated samples exhibited significantly decelerated quality deterioration. Correlation analysis identified sensory scores as the most sensitive shelf‐life indicator, remaining above the acceptability threshold significantly longer than the BLA controls. Specifically, SHS extended the estimated shelf life by 6 days at 4°C and 2 days at 25°C compared with BLA (9 and 6 days, respectively). Unlike previous work focused mainly on immediate effects of SHS treatment, this study followed quality changes through both stewing and storage. These findings suggest that SHS has potential as a pretreatment for improving the quality and shelf life of braised pork under the tested conditions, although further validation is required for broader application.