Browsing by Subject "Meat functionality"

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Process, structure and function relationship in ground meat
(2023) Berger, Lisa Marie; Weiss, Jochen
Ground beef has enjoyed high popularity with consumers because it is convenient to use and facilitates a rapid preparation of a large variety of different meals. In the production of ground meat, the particle size of the meat is systematically reduced, and the cell structures are partially disintegrated. Ideally, the original cellular meat or fat structure is preserved as much as possible so that important quality attributes are optimized. However, the effect of varying conditions and parameters in modern processes on the quality of ground meat has not yet been investigated in detail. According to the current German “Leitsätze für Fleisch und Fleischerzeugnisse”, hamburgers must not contain more than 20 Vol.% of non-intact cell structures to be sold without further declaration. Therefore, this work aimed to identify process, structure, and function relationships in ground meat production to facilitate a gentler processing of in particular hamburgers. To investigate these effects systematically, a standardized production method for hamburgers was developed and a pilot plant scale meat grinder was set up with the possibility to record process-relevant data. The relationship between the structure and functionality of ground meat was investigated using a model system with increasing amounts of added meat batter to simulate changes in meat structure due to cell disintegration. A new term, i.e., the amount of non-intact cells (ANIC), was introduced to quantify the amount of disintegrated meat cells during processing. It was shown that changes in the structure due to a higher or lower ANIC resulted in altered physicochemical and functional properties of the ground meat system. The effect of frozen meat content and temperature on the structure and function of hamburgers was investigated to verify the above-obtained correlation to an application-relevant setting. As the specific cutting resistance is significantly higher in frozen than in chilled meat, it was assumed, that the impact on the ground meat’s structure and function differed accordingly. Indeed, this could be verified. In hamburger manufacturing, it is common practice to re-fed imperfectly molded patties, e.g., in a frozen, coarsely crushed state. In contrast to those findings, the use of up to 20 % re-fed material in hamburger manufacturing did not result in any noticeable differences as neither the specific mechanical energy input (SME) nor the ANIC was significantly changed. It was thus demonstrated, that some raw material variations can have an impact on both structure and function of hamburgers. Especially, temperature effects and associated changes in the cutting resistance of the raw material had the strongest influence on structure and function of ground meat. However, if structural differences were found, they were not sufficient to manifest in differences in sensory evaluation. This means that the consumer perception and thus the quality of the hamburger was not influenced. The process parameters and their impact on the structure and function of hamburgers were studied by investigating the impact of the four main processing steps pre-grinding, mixing, grinding, and forming. An increased ANIC was determined with progressive processing, whereby the grinding steps accounted for the strongest increase. Mixing and forming were of minor importance for structural and functional changes. By varying the cutting set parameters, the influence of the cutting set compositions on the structure and function of hamburgers was assessed. The SME and the ANIC increased if more cutting levels were used due to higher shear stress applied to the meat. However, the hole plate properties did cause no or only negligible changes in the ANIC and SME. Although an impact of the cutting set composition on the structure could be found, no or only marginal effects on the function and the sensory and optical quality of the hamburgers were found. It can therefore be concluded that the shear forces acting on the meat during grinding have the strongest influence on the structure and function of beef. By reducing the acting shear forces, the grinding can be designed to be gentler resulting in lower ANIC. Despite the influence on the process-control (SME, pressure, torque) and the structural parameters (ANIC), it needs to be emphasized that the influence on the function and quality of the hamburgers is small in application-relevant ranges. In application-relevant ranges this relationship is only slightly pronounced. Comparable results were found, as raw material variations only partially caused structural, functional, and quality effects in the hamburgers. This in turn means that changes in structure cannot always be linked to a shift in perceived quality. In order to carry out an integrated evaluation of the product, structural parameters and quality parameters must be defined, assessed separately, and merged into a combined overall sample assessment.