The meat processing industry consists of institutions mainly engaged in slaughtering different animal species (such as cattle, pigs, sheep, lambs or calves) to obtain meat that can be sold in the same place or used for different purposes. Meat processing includes slaughtering animals, cutting meat, inspecting meat to ensure its safe consumption, packaging, processing into other products, such as sausage or lunch meat, sending them to stores and selling them to customers. Meat processing industry is an entity independent of meat packaging industry: processing includes making meat raw materials into another marketable, safe and attractive product to consumers. Packaging is often an important part of the meat processing industry because processed meat often takes on unnatural shapes. For example, sausages are sometimes sold in tubular packages with metal buckles at both ends, while hot dogs are sold in eight bundles in many cases, usually in plastic bags.
Effect of radiation on meat flavor
When processing meat and meat products, exposure to ultraviolet light, heat and oxygen will lead to flavor changes. If high dose is considered, the irradiation is no different. Therefore, irradiation of fresh meat at a high dose of more than 4.5 kGy will produce peculiar smell and peculiar smell (described as wet dog, rotten egg, blood, fishy smell, roasted corn, charred, metal, alcohol like or acetic acid like). However, other factors can also lead to flavor changes, such as oxygen exposure during and after irradiation, which exacerbates this change. Methods to reduce the harmful effects of high-dose radiation include removing oxygen (such as vacuum packaging), replacing oxygen with inert gas (such as nitrogen), adding protective agents such as antioxidants, and storing after irradiation to eliminate bad odors. Repackaging in vacuum or double packaging in oxygen impermeable film has been found to be helpful. Irradiation of meat at low temperatures can also reduce these odors. The changes caused by high-dose radiation observed in meat are due to the initiation or promotion of fat oxidation and unsaturated fatty acid free radical formation, as well as the radiation degradation of amino acid side chains. However, at lower doses of 3.0 kGy or less, there was little effect on the flavor of products such as ground beef.
Development and utilization of new chemical processing technology for semi-finished meat
Meat processing plants that chop up semi-finished products have been tested for new sonochemical processing technologies and conducted trade analysis of semi-finished products and finished products. All taste testers noticed that meat slices containing sonochemically treated saline had significant improvements in consistency, taste and flavor. The results of the study on the water binding ability of minced meat and meat slices under heat treatment confirmed the high sensory evaluation. As we can see from the data obtained, the combined moisture content index affecting the juiciness of the product is higher for the saline samples treated by sonochemistry.
