Processing techniques for meat products
There mainly two types of meat products sectioned and formed meat products and the
emulsion based meat products. Both these categories in general have specific processing steps
common for the products within each group which are discussed below.

1.Sectioned and formed meat products
These are technically restructured meat products as they are disassembled and then reassembled to form
intact products. They are prepared from chunks or pieces of meat and are bonded together to form a single
piece. The substances that bind these together are non meat additives, meat emulsions and extracted myofibrillar
proteins. There are certain basic steps involved in production of these products and the main principals behind
these steps are –

• A protein - meat surface interaction must be created to form a bond between adjacent pieces or
  chunks of meat
• The meat must be made pliable and soft so that it can be pressed or molded into the desired shape
• Heating is necessary to coagulate the proteins so that adjacent pieces of meat are strongly bonded
  together. The above is achieved through the following -
  a)Creating surface protein matrix -
  This can be achieved extracting the meat proteins or by adding non meat proteins. The native meat proteins
  can be extracted by adding salt which derives the soluble proteins along with the exudate.This step is
  facilitated by tumbling and massaging actions. The amount of extracted proteins will depend upon salt present
  and tumbling and massaging actions . Myosin is the major protein that is extracted and the actomyosin,
  actin and other myofibrillar proteins also appear to have some binding effect. The sarcoplasmic or water
  soluble proteins from the muscle appear to play a minor role on binding the meat.
  b)Improving pliability and shaping of the product -
  Tumbling and massaging improve the pliability of the product. When the product becomes soft and pliable
  it can be shaped and formed. Shaping is normally achieved by application of force using different molds
  casings etc.
  c)Heating for stabilizing the bonds -
  The application of heat leads to coagulation of tacky exudate and this binds the meat chunks together in the
  reformed shape.

Processed meat products

Sausages

• About 15% of all meat produced in the U.S. is used to make sausages.
• The average consumer eats over 70 hot dogs per year.
• Over 200 varieties of sausage are produced in this country.
• Sausage manufacture uses two methods for preparing the ingredients for sausage making complete
  homogenization as an emulsion prepared and coarse , medium or fine grinding is used to make non
  emulsion types.
• Raw materials for sausage and other meat products is important as the finished product can be no higher
  quality than the ingredients that it contains.
  i)There several meat sources for sausages like beef, pork, mutton, veal, poultryetc.
  ii)Meat by-products are also used some times like lips, tripe, pork stomachs and heart etc.
• There are several ways to classify these tissues –
  i)Binding or color index utilizes a numbering system which ranges from 1 to 100. 100 would be the highest
  rating and 1 the lowest. For example bull meat has the highest binding capacity of all meats tested, thus
  it has a binding index of 100. tripe on the other hand has a very low binding capacity, thus it has an index of 25.
  ii)Binding is due to the amount of SSHCP available.
  iii)What conditions must be avoided in meat as an ingredient for processing and these are PSE, boar odor
  (its due to 5-alpha androst 16 ene 3 one) and mutton( use less than 20%).
• The selection of animal tissues is based on following too –
  i)Max fat – 30% . Fat is evaluated by rapid techniques and then sausage square is used

This square shows that if we want to add jowls to be to achieve 30% fat than what
should be the proportion of each viz. 60%cow and 40%jowls.

ii)Max water – 4P + 10%
iii)BI — 40 - 60
iv)Color – 40 - 50 8.Sausage manufacture includes any type of meat that is chopped, seasoned and formed into
symmetrical shape. 9. There are different categories of sausages and the most can be classified as below —

• The processing procedures involved in extracting SSHCP are –
  i)Grinding/ chopping – basically utilizes the concept of rupturing the cell to aid in protein extraction.
  ii)Mixing – utilizes friction and kinetic energy to increase protein extraction.
  iii)Tumbling – utilizes friction and kinetic energy to increase protein extraction.
  iv)Massaging – utilizes friction and kinetic energy to increase protein extraction.
  v)Pre-blending – is a system that may be done in conjunction with one of the other procedures or
  independently. The osmotic imbalance allows salt uptake and protein extraction.
• Emulsion formation due to SSHCP extraction follow the same basic principles. However, an emulsion may
  be described as a mixture of two heterogenous liquids ( which normally separate) held in suspension.
• Fat and water normally separate; however, if handled properly, it may be held in a colloidal suspension.
• Proteins normally have 2 ends hydrophobic and hydrophilic. Meat is chopped finely and the hydrophobic
  proteins will react with fat, the opposite protein, hydrophilic will react with water to hold fat in solution.
• If myofibrillar proteins are to be utilized they must be extracted. Generally salt soluble proteins which include
  sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar proteins.
• Stromal proteins comprise collagen, elastin and reticulin. These proteins as agroup are water soluble.
• The myofibrillar proteins are the largest group and probably more is known about these proteins than any other
  as a group. They are salt soluble and the major components are actin and myosin.
• Meat processing technology has developed to the point that various procedures are available for preparing
  meat products that have the appearance and consistency of intact muscles.
• Binding meat pieces involves the use of proteins. These proteins may include soy products, dairy products,
  egg products or myofibrillar proteins.
• The same basic technology is used as discussed for sectioned and formed meat products with here being
  no tumbling and massaging.
• The moisture to protein ratios of various tissues are very important for use as guidelines in predicting the
  composition of the finished product.
• Fat content is influenced by grade and variation in fat content may be too high.
• Fat is estimated if the moisture - protein percent are known by assuming 1% ash.
• Color index follows the same logic. those meats with highest pigment concentration
  (myoglobin , hemoglobin etc.) Will receive the highest scores.
• Moisture protein ratio, fat- lean ratio, amount of pigment as well as their ability to bind moisture and emulsify fat.
  These properties are collectively referred to as the binding ability of meat.