Treatment of meat

Details Treatment of meat Treatment of meat

1997-07-15

2001-02-27

Tran, Lien (Department: 1761)

Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products

Packaged or wrapped product

Packaged product is animal flesh

C426S106000, C426S312000, C426S315000, C426S316000, C426S418000, C426S513000, C100S910000, C053S432000, C053S436000, C053S527000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06194012

ABSTRACT:

This invention relates to improvements in meat treatment and more particularly to improvements in methods and apparatus for treatments of meat in handling, storing, transporting and/or ageing.
Throughout this specification it is to be understood that references to “meat” include all forms of meat generally considered to be edible including fish, poultry and offal of all descriptions.
Methods and apparatus for meat treatment are steeped in history and extend from rather primitive steps in merely “hanging” carcasses for a predetermined period of time to fast or slow cooling of hung carcasses and other developed techniques.
More recently, techniques for “off bone” meat handling, also known as “hot deponing”, have been developed as producers look to add value to meat products, increased efficiency and reduced costs. It is known that off bone meat handling or hot deboning can lead to an increased yeld of meat from the carcass and reduce opportunities for meat contamination prior to subsequent treatment.
While off bone meat handling or hot deboning has significant benefits in enabling producers to improve the efficiency of the desirable rapid cooling of meat after slaughter; this is owing to only the required meat requiring cooling, considerable difficulty has been experienced by producers using the off bone or hot deboning techniques in retaining the tenderness of meat handled in this way as often traditional methods of ageing have been difficult to apply in circumstances where the carcass cannot be used to provide support for the meat after slaughter. In particular, traditional methods predominately use the bone structure of the carcass, often together with certain hanging techniques to resist forces which occur in the meat post slaughter, for example during chilling of the meat after slaughter and in the period prior to, during and after the onset of rigor.
When off bone or hot deboning meat handling techniques are utilized, the quality of resultant meat can suffer, for example loss of desirable meat characteristics through cold shortening as the meat is rapidly cooled after removal from the carcass; to the extent that the resultant meat will suffer a permanent loss of desirable eating characteristics, particularly tenderness, or alternatively, will require significantly long ageing times to overcome the damage, with attendant potential losses through contamination and other incidences.
One technique which has been developed is where the meat is subjected to relatively high pressures in a hydraulic pressure vessel for a short period of time, typically less than one hour. It has been found that such a technique can tend to enhance the tenderness of the meat and fluid retention of the meat, however, substantial difficulties are encountered in physical handling of the meat, in plant and machinery provision and in view of the fact that inevitably a high labour requirement is necessary.
The abovementioned pressure technique is as yet uncommercial and potentially has associated problems of high cost, undue process time consumption and the like. There remains, in addition, a difficulty in subsequent meat storage in a manner which retains the quality of the meat over a normally required period.
Attempts have been made to age off bone meat in substantially anaerobic conditions utilising container apparatus. Such an apparatus is described in New Zealand patent specification No. 220876, however, this apparatus carries with it inherent problems of dealing with weepage or drip of the meat during storage, together with contamination of the weepage or drip during the course of storage and consequent contamination of at least some portions of the meat curing storage, or on removal of the meat from the storage arrangements. Furthermore, it has been found in practice difficult to control the extent of pressure applied to the meat and maintain the pressure on the meat.
In meat handling there is a general problem of transportation from a location relatively remote from markets and storage until sale, without resorting to freezing. It is well accepted that freezing meat inherently damages its characteristics and saleability.
Attempts have been made to store meat in environments having low free oxygen such as vacuum packing or modified atmosphere packaging utilising carbon dioxide and/or nitrogen. There is, however, evidence to suggest that direct exposure of meat to the gaseous phase can result in a deleterious effect on the meat over time.
It is an object of this invention to come some way in overcoming the abovementioned problems or at least provide the public with a useful choice.
According to one aspect of this invention there is provided a method of treatment and/or storage of meat including the steps of containing the said meal in a controllable environment under compression and at a temperature above the freezing temperature of meat in a controlled free oxygen reduced environment.
According to a further aspect of this invention there is provided a method of treatment and/or storage of meat including the steps of containing said meat in a controllable environment under compression, separating a surface of said meat from any gas present by substantially gas impermeable portions of a containment means, controlling said environment to reduce free oxygen in said environment, holding said meat under such conditions within a predetermined temperature range for a predetermined period of time.
According to a further aspect of this invention there is provided a means of treatment and/or storage of meat including a closeable container having, said container capable of at least partially defining a chamber, means to control an environment in the chamber, said chamber housing a compression means provided to apply a compression to meat contained within said chamber while said meat is contained in the controlled environment.
According to a still further aspect of this invention there is provided a container of meat including a container in which treat is contained under compression and at a temperature above the freezing temperature of meat in a controlled free oxygen reduced environment.
Other aspects of this invention will become apparent from the following description.
The preferred form of the invention will now be described with reference to a method and apparatus of storing and ageing fresh boned meat.
To assist in disclosure of the method of the invention, the preferred form of apparatus used in carrying out the method is also described. It is to be appreciated that this apparatus is in no way limiting and other apparatus, such as the examples described hereinbefore and others may be also utilised in carrying out the method of the invention.
It is to be appreciated that throughout this specification and particularly with reference to the embodiments described herein, reference is made to various empirical measurements. This reference is made purely for the purposes of clarity of the description and in relationship to the particular embodiment described. The references are in no way limiting, particularly having regard to the general co-relationship between temperature and time in methods and apparatus for handling meat.
The method and apparatus is also described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:


REFERENCES:
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patent: 3627393 (1971-12-01), Hickson et al.
patent: 4919955 (1990-04-01), Mitchell
patent: 5155974 (1992-10-01), Garwood
patent: 5348752 (1994-09-01), Garlich
patent: 0599113 (1987-07-01), None
patent: 7505087 (1988-01-01), None
patent: 7918987 (1988-03-01), None
patent: 0625149 (1988-03-01), None
patent: 4502289 (1991-04-01), None
patent: 0211060 (1985-02-01), None
patent: 0220876 (1991-08-01), None
New Zealand Meat Producer, “Paving the Way for Chilled Meat”, Second Quarter 1992, pp. 26-27.
Vesten AG Division Food Concept, “Gasflush Packing Systems Information” No date.
Leblanc et al.,Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, 11(1987) pp. 209-235.

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