Abstract:The effect of pulsed strong light on sterilizing effect and quality of chilled chicken breast meat was studied. Combined with the principle of Box-Benhnken center combination design and response surface methodology, the sterilization conditions were optimized, and the quality of chilled chicken breast meat was evaluated. The results showed that pulsed strong light could effectively kill the surface microorganism of chilled chicken breast meat. The effects of pulse energy, pulse distance and pulse time on sterilizing rate of chilled chicken breast meat were significant, with the increase of pulse energy and pulse time, the bactericidal rate was increased, and the sterilization rate was decreased with the increase of pulse distance. With the increase of pulse energy and pulse time, the shear force was decreased, and the color difference was significant. With the increase of pulse distance, the shear force was increased obviously but it was less than 4kg, and there was significant difference in color difference. Under the optimized conditions of pulse energy of 400J, pulse distance of 12cm, pulse time of 50s, the sterilization rate of chilled chicken breast meat was 90.03%, and the shear force was 2.63kg. The loss rate of water was 30.31% and the color aberration was 3.53. Under these conditions, the relative errors of germicidal rate of colony total, centrifugal water loss rate, shear force and color aberration were obtained by verifying the results of the experiment. The relative errors were 1.07%, 1.17%, 1.54% and 2.02%, respectively. At the same time, the chilled chicken breast meat after pulsed strong light treatment was stored at 0~4℃, and the shelf life was prolonged for 1~2d, which could solve the practical problems faced by the factory.