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Processed meats, such as a ground meat and hamburger patty, are required to ensure that no pathogens remain in the final products. However, there was no rapid method available to verify that the recommended end-point cooking temperature(EPT) was reached. Thus, the objective of this study was to rapidly determine EPT of ground pork hams using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis(SDS-PAGE), based on the disappearance of sarcoplasmic proteins after cooking. Fresh pork hams were added two levels of salt(0, 2%) and fat(15, 25%) combinations, and stored in refrigerator overnight, and cooked to internal cooking temperatures of 64℃ to 74℃ with 2℃ increments. Cooked pork hams were measured cooking loss(CL, %), protein solubility(PS) and SDS-PAGE. CL(%) was reduced with the addition of 2% salt, as compared to the control, regardless of fat contents. It was also increased with increasing cooking temperature. Protein solubility was affected by the cooking temperature, resulting in reduced PS up to 64℃(P<0.05), but remained constant higher than 68℃. In SDS-PAGE analysis, protein bands with the molecular weights of 36 and 66 kDa were affected by the addition of salt and fat combinations, regardless of treatments. These protein fractions were decreased gradually with increased cooking temperatures up to 68℃~70℃ and might be good indicators for the determination of EPT in ground pork hams.
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