The aim of this review is to investigate the basic principles of red meat cooking technologies, including traditional and modern methods, and their effects on the physical, thermal, mechanical, sensory, and microbial characteristics of red meat. Cooking methods were categorized into two categories: traditional (cooking in the oven and frying) and modern (ohmic, sous vide, and microwave cooking). When red meat is subjected to high temperatures during food manufacturing, it undergoes changes in its engineering and quality attributes. The quality standards of meat products are associated with several attributes that are determined by food technologists and consumers based on their preferences. Cooking improves the palatability of meat in terms of tenderness, flavor, and juiciness, in addition to eliminating pathogenic microorganisms. The process of meat packaging is one of the important processes that extend the life span of meat and increase its shelf life due to non-exposure to oxygen during cooking and ease of handling without being exposed to microbial contamination. This review highlights the significance of meat cooking mathematical modeling in understanding heat and mass transfer phenomena, reducing costs, and maintaining meat quality. The critical overview considers various production aspects/quality and proposed methods, such as, but not limited to, hurdle technology, for the mass production of meat.

Convection drying in combination with ultrasound pretreatment has emerged as a promising technology for seafood manufacturing. The primary objective of this research was to model the mass transfer process of Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer) fish skin without and with ultrasound pretreatment during convection drying at different temperatures (45, 55, and 65 °C). Additionally, the study aimed to examine the impact of ultrasound pretreatment and temperatures on the drying characteristics and specific energy consumption for drying of Asian seabass fish skin. Seven semi-theoretical models, namely Lewis, Page, modified Page, Vega-Lemus, Verma, Henderson and Pabis, and two-term models, were employed to characterize the moisture transfer process. The results of the study indicated a decrease in the moisture content as the drying time increased at different drying temperatures. Higher drying temperatures were associated with an increased drying rate. Among the mathematical models tested, the modified Page model provided a satisfactory description of the thin-layer drying characteristics of fish skin. Fick’s law of diffusion was utilized to determine the effective moisture diffusivities. Comparing the drying of fish skin without (SS) and with ultrasound pretreatment (US-SS), the drying of the latter generally showed higher D_eff values. The temperature dependence of the effective diffusivity coefficient was well described by the Arrhenius-type model. An increase in the drying temperature resulted in an increment of the effective moisture diffusivity. In general, the skin pretreated using ultrasound had a reduced drying time, by up to 28%. Additionally, this approach contributed to an approximate 22% reduction in the specific energy consumption, concurrently enhancing the energy efficiency. The microstructure analysis showed that fresh and dried US-SS samples had a more open structure and higher porosity, in comparison to the corresponding SS samples. These findings contribute to the knowledge on the application of ultrasound as the pretreatment of fish skin before drying and provide valuable insights for the development of potential drying techniques in the seafood industry.