SummaryIn this paper, immersion vacuum cooling with ultrasonic assistance (IVCUA) is compared with immersion vacuum cooling alone (IVC) and vacuum cooling (VC) for cooling time, mass loss, colour, texture profile and water mobility and compartmentalization for cooked meat products. The results reveal that IVCUA clearly enhances the boiling intensity of impregnation liquid compared to IVC. The total cooling time using IVC (126.56 min) for samples from 72 to 4 °C was significantly longer (P < 0.05) than that of IVCUA (96.89 min) and VC (80.48 min). The cooling time of samples from 10 to 4 °C by IVC (46.26 min) was higher (P < 0.05) than that by IVCUA (28.55 min). There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in mass loss, colour and texture profile among all samples. However, IVCUA had a higher transverse relation time of bulk water (T24) and MRI proton densities (P < 0.05), as well as a more uniform water distribution compared to IVC.