Further processing of meat

SIMPLE STANDARDS OF DIFFERENT QUALITIES OF MEAT USED AS RAW MATERIAL FOR DIFFERENT PRODUCT QUALITIES

Manufacturers must aim for uniform quality of their meat products. To attain this, raw materials must be standardized for different qualities. Goodquality carcasses are usually divided into primal cuts (ham, shoulder, loin, neck, etc.). The remainder of the carcass and trimmings from the primal cuts are standardized into different qualities of meat. Poorer-quality carcasses are used entirely for processing after being deboned and trimmed.

Basic parameters for simple quality standards are size and shape of meat pieces, amount of visible fatty and connective tissues, and chemical composition. Meat must not contain skin, lymphatic glands, particles of bones, bristles, large blood vessels or blood clots.

Different qualities of meat

First quality (Meat I). Meat pieces of relatively uniform size and shape, trimmed of connective tissue, with about 8 percent visible fatty tissue obtained from larger primal cuts, mostly hindquarter. It is used to make meat batter for sausages and high-quality canned products (Fig. 129).

Second quality (Meat II). Meat pieces of irregular size and shape, partially trimmed of connective tissue with about 15 percent visible fatty tissue, obtained mostly from forequarters. It is used to manufacture meat batter, or medium-quality meat products (Fig. 130).

Lean trimmings are small irregular pieces of meat, with pervading connective and fatty tissue (about 25 percent), obtained during deboning and trimming of primal cuts, Meats I and II, and meat parts of the head and flank. They are used to make meat batter for all kinds of medium-and lowquality cooked sausages (Fig. 131).

Fatty trimmings are meat pieces containing about 50 percent visible fatty tissue, derived from all trimming operations. They are used as the fatty ingredient of meat batter of medium and low quality (Fig. 132).

Standards of fatty tissues

Ruminants

Firm (external) fatty tissues are trimmed from any part of the carcass and hump of zebu and are used as the fatty component of the meat batter or sausage mixture (mutton, goat, etc.) or all-beef higher-quality sausages.

	128. Cross-section of pork loins: DFD (1) and PSE (2) meat
129. First-quality meat (Meat I)	131. Lean trimmings
130. Second-quality meat (Meat II)	132. Fatty trimmings

Soft (internal) fatty tissues are perirenal and sacral in origin and are not generally used in sausages.

Pork

Jowl (firm) contains much muscular (even up to 30 percent) and connective tissues. It is suitable for manufacturing dry sausages, summer sausages, salamis and emulsion-type sausages of the highest quality (Fig. 133).

Back fat (firm) is used for semi-dry and dry sausages, and in frankfurter sausages of the highest quality (Fig. 134).

Side fat (firm) contains about 60 percent visible fatty tissue. It is used to manufacture medium-quality cooked sausages made of uncooked or precooked materials (Fig. 135).

133. Pieces of pork jowl	135. Uniformly sized and shaped pieces of pork side fat
134. Pieces of pork back fat	136. “Soft” pork fatty tissues

Belly fat and leaf (soft) are used to make cooked sausages of low quality (Fig. 136).

Chemical parameters

Typical quality standards based on average chemical composition are shown in Table 4.