Abstract: Intensified high-temperature air-drying ripening was used for the production of Chinese bacon from pork bellies and its effect on lipid oxidation and sensory quality in Chinese bacon was investigated. The results showed intensified treatment at 65 ℃ activated lipoxygenase (LOX) significantly (P ＜ 0.05), and resulted in a decrease of 26.1% in the TBARS value and of 45% in the POV value and a 14.0% increase in the sensory evaluation score of Chinese bacon when compared with the control (without high-temperature intensification before air drying), indicating that intensified high-temperature treatment can promote lipid oxidation and the accumulation of flavor substances and reduce oxidation indexes. The optimal levels of intensifying temperature, drying temperature, relative humidity and drying time were respectively 65 ℃, 18－29.5 ℃ (increasing by 1.5 ℃ per day), 72%－68.5% (decreasing by 0.5% per day) and 8 days as demonstrated by regression optimizations based on TBARS value and sensory evaluation score. The dry-cured product obtained under these conditions contained 3.56% of salt and 52.2% of moisture, and the results were in good agreement with sensory analysis.

Key words: Chinese bacon, intensified high-temperature air-drying ripening, lipid oxidation, sensory quality, regression optimization