Innovative ohmic-sous vide cooking technique for enhancing physicochemical, textural, and sensory attributes of Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius) meat

This study evaluated the effects of ohmic-sous vide (OS) and conventional sous vide (SV) cooking on the physicochemical, color, textural, and sensory properties of Arabian camel ( Camelus dromedarius ) meat. Meat samples were cooked at 70, 80, and 90 °C for 30, 60, 90, and 120 min using a 2 × 3 × 4 factorial design. Compared with SV cooking, OS cooking produced significantly higher pH, cooking loss, water activity, yellowness (b*), total color change (ΔE), hue angle, and chroma values, whereas lightness (L*), redness (a*), and shear force were significantly lower (p < 0.001). Increasing cooking temperature and time generally increased pH, cooking loss, yellowness, total color change, hue angle, and chroma, while decreasing lightness, redness, water activity, and shear force. Sensory evaluation showed that OS cooking significantly improved overall acceptability (p < 0.001) and tenderness (p = 0.01) compared with SV cooking. In contrast, cooking method did not significantly affect flavor or juiciness (p > 0.05). Increasing cooking temperature and time improved overall acceptability, tenderness, and flavor but progressively reduced juiciness. Meat cooked at 90 °C for 120 min received the highest overall acceptability, tenderness, and flavor scores, although this treatment also resulted in the lowest juiciness. In conclusion, OS cooking improved tenderness and sensory acceptability compared with conventional SV cooking; however, these benefits were accompanied by greater cooking loss and changes in meat color. These findings highlight the potential of OS cooking for improving camel-meat tenderness while emphasizing the need to optimize processing conditions to balance tenderness, moisture retention, color, and sensory quality.