Effect of sodium bicarbonate with ultrasound on reduced-salt Chaozhou beef meatballs quality: Physicochemical and sensory properties

This study aimed to create a reduced-salt version of Chaozhou beef meatballs (CBMs) by employing ultrasound treatment (0 and 30 min) combined with sodium bicarbonate (0%, 0.15%, and 0.3%). The ultrasound-assisted sodium bicarbonate treatment significantly enhanced pH, salt-soluble protein solubility (SSP), water-holding capacity (WHC), and storage modulus (G′) of the CBMs (p < 0.05). Specifically, after treatment, the increase in pH value promoted the solubilization of SSP, with the content increasing from 28.23% to 56.53%. Moreover, the initial relaxation times (T₂₁ and T₂₂) were shortened, indicating a decrease in water mobility, as evidenced by an increase in WHC from 85% to 87%. Furthermore, the ultrasound treatment effectively facilitated protein unfolding, increased β-sheet secondary structure content, augmented hydrogen and disulfide bond proportions, and resulted in a denser and more uniform gel structure. Consequently, the hardness of the CBMs was significantly improved (p < 0.05). Sensory evaluation revealed that the treated reduced-salt CBMs were comparable to those produced by conventional methods. Therefore, combining sodium bicarbonate with ultrasound treatment is a viable approach to mitigate the negative effects of reduced salt content and produce high-quality reduced-salt CBMs.