Effects of different drying methods on physicochemical and sensory characteristics of instant scallop

The effects of different drying methods (i.e. microwave drying, vacuum freeze drying, natural drying and oven drying) on the quality of instant scallop were investigated. The bay scallop was chosen as the raw material, furthermore, two significant parameters, the physicochemical properties and sensory characteristics were tested in detail. The results showed that water activity, pH value, hardness, chewiness and cohesiveness of product have significant variation with different drying methods. The statistics results of the color and springiness have no remarkable differences. The sensory score of oven drying product was 8.82. The total amino acids was the highest by oven drying and lowest by microwave drying. The essential amino acids and flavor amino acids were the highest by vacuum freeze drying and lowest by natural drying. It is noteworthy that the sensory score and total amino acids with oven drying were the highest among the methods. The optimal drying method for instant scallop was oven drying. The optimal drying process parameters were as follows: drying temperature was 80℃ and drying time was 2 h. The results can provide references for industrial production of instant scallop.