To elucidate the mechanical process in meat during high pressure treatment, we attempted to describe thermodynamically the mechanism of meat denaturation on the basis of volume changes, enthalpy changes, and rheological properties. Carp meat was pressurized up to 196 MPa for 13 h at 0-5-degrees-C. The volume of meat was irreversibly changed by pressurizing for more than 4min. After 2h of pressurization, the ratio of volume change (V0 - V)/V0, where V0 and V were the volumes of unpressurized and pressurized samples, respectively, attained a constant value of ca. 0.11. The results of dynamic viscoelastic measurement on the meat paste showed that the pressurized meat gave a fine network structure of meat gel by heating. A comparison of the results of differential scanning calorimetry with volume changes by pressurizing suggested that there was a similar denaturation mechanism in both heating and pressurizing.
