Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the effect of ultrasound-assisted pulsed tumbling marination on the quality and protein characteristics of sauced beef. Three treatment groups were set up: untreated raw meat (SR), static marination (CT), and ultrasound-assisted pulsed tumbling marination (UT). Quality attributes measured included texture, shear force, pH, color, and free amino acids. Protein characteristics were studied by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, surface hydrophobicity, endogenous fluorescence spectroscopy, carbonyl and sulfhydryl contents, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and proteomics. The results showed that under the conditions of an ultrasound power of 255 W, a tumbling time of 3 h, and a sonication time of 108 min, ultrasound-assisted pulsed tumbling marination significantly improved the hardness, chewiness, tenderness, and color of sauced beef and increased the pH (P < 0.05). The tumbling marination increased total free amino acid content by 18.20% compared with traditional static marination. In addition, it significantly elevated the contents of all sweet and umami amino acids while significantly reducing the contents of several bitter amino acids (P < 0.05), thereby improving the product’s flavor. Moreover, the degree of protein degradation, β-sheet content, surface hydrophobicity, and carbonyl content (5.27 nmol/mg) were significantly increased, while total sulfhydryl content (23.27 nmol/mg) and free sulfhydryl content (20.83 nmol/mg) were decreased, indicating increased protein oxidation. The microstructure was loosened, promoting texture optimization. Proteomics analysis identified 541, 609, and 361 differentially expressed proteins in the SR vs CT groups, SR vs UT groups, and CT vs UT groups, respectively. Subsequently, bioinformatics analyses including Gene Ontology (GO) annotation, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis, and protein subcellular localization were performed. This study provides a theoretical basis for the application of ultrasound technology in meat product processing. In the future, process parameters can be further optimized, the technology can be extended to other meat products, and its combination with multi-omics can be used to deeply analyze the quality regulation mechanism.

Key words: ultrasound; pulsed tumbling marination; sauced beef; quality; protein properties; proteomics