Text 3 methods of processing and preservation of meat

1. Read the text and answer the questions on it.

1) What methods of processing and preservation of meat are presented the text? 2) Which of them is most effective?

3) Which of them is the oldest one?

4) Which of them do you prefer as a consumer?

5) What other methods do you know as a specialist?

Meat was originally processed to preserve it, but since the various procedures cause so many changes in texture and flavour it is also a means of adding variety to the diet. Processing also provides scope to mix the less desirable parts of the carcass with lean meat and in addition is a means of extending meat supplies by including other foodstuffs such as cereal in the product.

Meat is a highly perishable products and soon becomes unfit to eat and possibly dangerous to health through microbial growth, chemical change and breakdown by endogenous enzymes.

These processes can be curtailed by reducing the temperature sufficiently to slow down or inhibit the growth of micro-organisms, by heating to destroy organisms and enzymes (cooking, canning), or by removal of water by drying or osmotic control (binding the water with salt or other substances so that it becomes unavailable to the organisms). It is also possible to use chemicals to inhibit growth and, very recently, ionising radiation (however, the last is not allowed in some countries).

Traditional methods that have been used for thousands of years involve drying in wind and sun, salting and smoking. Canning dates from early in the 19th century and allows food to be stored for many years since it is sterilised and protected from recontamination.

Processed meats are products in which the properties of fresh meat have been modified by the use of procedures such as mincing, grinding or chopping, salting and curing, addition of seasonings and other food materials, and, in many instances heat treatment. Most of these processes extend the shelf life of meat. Their manufacture, in most instances, depends on the ability of the mixture to retain water since they are emulsions of protein, fat and water.

Tumbling and massaging. A new technique was developed in the 1960's to accelerate the penetration of salt. Pieces of meat are injected with the curing salt solution or chopped meat immersed in it and then mechanically shaken – «tumbled». Solutions of 2-8% salt are used, sometimes with the addition of polyphosphate, when there is some extraction of water-soluble protein, mainly myosin. The effect is to improve the water-holding capacity of the meat by reaction between the salt and the structural proteins, aided by the polyphosphate. The extracted proteins set to a strong gel on heating and so bind together the pieces of meat, which can then be shaped or sliced. The term «massaging» is applied to a relatively gentle mechanical treatment while «tumbling» is a more vigorous action.

Smoking. Meat has been treated with smoke from the earliest days - traditionally over a wood fire and more recently by producing smoke from wood sawdust in a generator and conducting the smoke over the meat. The substances deposited on the meat contribute to the flavour and appearance but with ordinary, light smoking the preservative effect is limited and the product has to be stored refrigerated. Intensive smoking does prolong shelf life both by heavier deposition of preservatives and by the drying effect of the hot air but it has a detrimental effect on flavour. Consequently preservation by smoking is regarded as an emergency measure when other methods cannot be used.

A modern development making use of the flavouring effect is to use an aqueous solution of the constituents of smoke which reduces the amount of strongly flavoured and other unwanted substances.