Abstract: Chilling is an essential process in chilled meat production, and various chilling methods are available for actual production. Different chilling methods have different effects on meat quality. Very fast chilling has several advantages like shortening the chilling time of livestock and poultry meat, reducing the chilling loss, delaying the postmortem physiological and biochemical processes, and reducing the proliferation of microorganisms on the surface of meat. However, no consensus has been reached on the effect of very fast chilling on the tenderness of meat, which may be associated with its unclear mechanism. This limits the application of very fast chilling technology. Therefore, this article systematically reviews recent progress in understanding the effect of very fast chilling on postmortem muscle tenderness, with a focus on its potential mechanism from five aspects: physical restraint, physical damage, early postmortem release of calcium, the glycolysis process and the apoptosis process, in order to provide a theoretical basis for the development and application of very fast chilling technology.

Key words: chilled meat; very fast chilling; tenderness; mechanism; postmortem