Abstract
Minced lamb remains one of the most produced meat products in the meat industry, across both the food service and retail sectors. Tea polyphenols (TPs), renowned for their diverse biological activities, are increasingly being employed as natural food additives in research and development. Tea polyphenols at concentrations of 0.00% (CG), 0.01% (TP1), 0.10% (TP2), and 0.30% (TP3) were added to lamb which had undergone a series of freeze-thaw cycles. The presence of tea polyphenols led to a significant decrease in the number of disulfide bonds, resulting in a slower oxidation rate. In addition, the surface hydrophobicity and juice loss of the minced lamb supplemented with tea polyphenols were 91.23 ± 0.22 and 20.00 ± 0.46, respectively, representing a reduction of 1.5% and 7.59% compared to the group without the addition of tea polyphenols. However, the addition of high-dose tea polyphenols also led to a reduction in emulsification stability, alterations in protein conformation, and changes in water migration. Furthermore, the incorporation of a minimal quantity of tea polyphenols (0.01%) resulted in enhanced emulsification stability, water retention, textural properties, and microstructures in minced lamb. This suggests that tea polyphenols have the potential to improve the quality of minced lamb following freezing and thawing processes.