Abstract: Freezing is an important way to maintain the quality and safety of meat and meat products, but freezing-thawing process can take place repeatedly during their long-term processing, transportation and sale. The repeated formation of ice crystals will cause a series of problems for meat and meat products such as oxidative denaturation, reduced water-holding capacity, declined functional quality and loss of nutrients, which can seriously affect the stability of meat system. Quality deterioration caused by repeated freeze-thaw cycles has become a hot topic in meat science. In this paper, the formation process of ice crystals and the influence of ice crystal morphology on the microstructure, juice loss, product quality and oxidation stability of meat system are reviewed, aiming to lay a foundation for studies to improve the stability of frozen-thawed meat system and provide a theoretical basis for improving the quality of frozen meat.

Key words: ice crystal morphology; freeze-thaw cycles; meat system; stability