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EFFECTS OF MECHANICALLY SEPARATED BEEF AS A RAW MATERIAL IN RESTRUCTURED STEAKS by HUGO IRIZARRY, B.S A THESIS IN MEAT SCIENCE Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Approved ^^ Chairman of the Committee Accepted //er^-Au^ Dean/bf the Graduate School May, 1985 "^O"^• 73 /t^:^ - ^^^^ 7 AC KNOWLE DGE ME NT S L'^<!!5///,-<«^ ^/ Deep appreciation goes to Dr. Gordon W. Davis, advisor, committee chairman and friend, for his counsel, interest, tolerance and constructive criticism during the completion of my master's degree program. The author wants to acknowledge committee members Dr. C. Boyd Ramsey, Dr. Ronald D. Galyean and Dr. Ronald M. Miller for their wisdom, knowledge and consideration during my studies at Texas Tech. Appreciation is expressed to Dr. S. C. Seideraan for his counseling and help in the creation of the product. Dr. James R. Clark for advice in statistical analysis of the data, Nancy Cook, U. S. Meat Animal Research Center, and Excel Corporation, for obtaining and supplying raw materials. Special thanks go to Mark Miller, Pat and Max Daniell, Monica Hightower, Andrew Clarke, Richard Hawkins, Tommy Wheeler, Terry Rolan, Jay Hoes and Roberto Gonzalez for their cooperation during the completion of this project. Most importantly, I wish to dedicate this thesis to Mr. and Mrs. Carlos H. Irizarry. I respectfully appreciate their support, inspiration, sound advice, motivation and especially their stressing the value of an education. n TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii LIST OF TABLES v CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION 1 II - LITERATURE REVIEW 4 Restructured Products 4 Restructuring 4 Flaked and formed 5 Chunked and formed 7 Properties and characteristics 10 Mechanically Separated Meat 13 Perspective 13 Mechanical separators 14 Regulations 13 Properties and characteristics 15 Utilization in restructured steaks 17 III - EFFECTS OF MECHANICALLY SEPARATED BEEF AS A RAW MATERIAL IN VARIOUS TYPES OF RESTRUCTURED STEAKS. 18 Summary 18 Introduction 19 Material and Methods 20 Product formulation 20 Cooking characteristics 21 Textural properties 21 Sensory evaluation 21 Visual properties 23 Chemical analyses 23 Statistical analysis 24 m Results and Discussion 24 Chemical traits 24 Visual properties 26 Sensory traits 28 Product defects 30 Textural properties 32 Conclusions 34 LITERATURE CITED 35 LIST OF APPENDICES 41 IV LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 1. MEANS FOR CHEMICAL TRAITS OF RESTRUCTURED STEAKS EXTENDED WITH MSB 25 2. MEANS FOR VISUAL APPEARANCE OF RESTRUCTURED STEAKS EXTENDED WITH MSB 27 3. MEANS FOR SENSORY TRAITS OF RESTRUCTURED STEAKS EXTENDED WITH MSB 29 4. PERCENTAGE OF SENSORY PANEL MEMBERS' DETECTION OF VARIOUS DEFECTS IN RESTRUCTURED STEAKS EXTENDED WITH MSB 31 5. MEAN SCORES FOR TEXTURAL PROPERTIES OF RESTRUCTURED STEAKS EXTENDED WITH MSB 33 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The world's economy, in a decline this past decade, reflects upon the rising cost of beef in recent years which forces price- driven consumers to seek lower quality grades and cuts of beef. The development of the comminution method of flake-cutting has helped to close the gap between consumer desires for beef products and the number of these products that can be afforded in the family budget. This has been achieved by enabling the use of lower quality grades and cuts of beef, especially chuck, to produce products that have the functional and sensory properties of the middle meats. Interest in the development of meat restructuring technology first emerged in the early 1940's. However, at that time the process was discarded when found to be uneconomical (Ashton, 1971). Restructuring was not successful at that time, primarily due to a lack of suitable equipment with which to comminute and form meat products. In the early 1970's, comminuting and forming machinery which was suitable for the restructuring of meat was developed at Urschel Laboratories, Valparaiso, IN and Bettcher Industries, Inc., Vermilion, OH. The purpose of restructured beef is to produce a steak which resembles intact muscle in textural properties, is uniform, has desirable color and is completely edible. Restructuring, using flaking technology, has expanded meat product utilization to produce low-cost steaks and chops from wholesale cuts normally processed into roasts or sausage. Mandigo (1974) stated that these new steak-like products were acceptable to steak-consuming Americans. The primary goal of the meat industry is the total utilization of skeletal muscle with maximum return (Cross and Stanfield, 1976). The average low quality (US Standard) carcass yields meat about 70% of which is generally tough and requires further processing before marketing. One of the meat industry objectives is to provide the consumer with a highly palatable product at the least possible cost. Therefore, utilizing less desirable carcasses, such as cows and bulls which provide meat high in color index and binding capacity, is of prime interest. The HRI (hotel, restaurant and institutional) trade demands that a consistent, uniform quality product be provided to its customers on every occasion. Factors such as weight, shape and thickness must be consistent for cooking uniformity and uniformity in steak appearance. Restructuring is designed to provide such a product (Seideman and Durland, 1982). Field et al. (1977) reported that one of the problems associated with restructured steaks prior to cooking is discoloration of the lean. Cooked restructured steaks often are criticized because of a swollen and deformed appearance, a tough, "hard-to-cut" surface and a poor texture (Mandigo, 1974; Campbell et al., 1977). Recent research has been directed toward improving restructured meat; nevertheless, consumer complaints regarding restructured meat still are common. Mechanically deboning is a procedure which salvages much of the meat that remains on bones after removal of the meat by hand. The resulting product is a darker red color than regular ground beef. Mechanically separated meat (MSM) may be of value in improving the quality of restructured steaks since it is high in heme pigments which produce a bright red color and low in strands of connective tissue which are detrimental to binding capacity. Field (1976) and Cross et al. (1977) determined that MSM improved the textural characteristics of ground beef and bologna. Another problem of restructured meat is its texture, which to some people resembles ground beef or pork sausage. Consumers prefer the product to have a steak-like texture which requires a knife and fork to cut the steak instead of broken apart. The utilization of chunked and formed versus a flaked and formed product may be the answer (Anonymous, 1973). Restructured meat is already in the market. The leaders in this product line have been the MacDonald organization with their entry "McRib" and the Armour & Co. "Sirbroil." For restructured meat products to continue their survival run in the consumer world, a need exists to improve their texture, palatability, binding properties, storage life and other characteristics which will increase the consumer acceptance of the products. Thus, the objectives of this study were (1) to determine the optimum level of mechanically separated beef (MSB) which can be included as a raw material in intermediate value beef products, and (2) to study connective tissue and binding properties of two intermediate value beef products (i.e., flaked and formed and chunked and formed restructured steaks) made with various levels of MSB. CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW Restructured Products Restructuring. Restructuring refers to a group of procedures that reduce the particle size of the meat and then reform the meat particles into a shape that resembles an intact muscle steak. Restructured steaks generally are considered synonymous with engineered steaks. The overall concept of restructuring meat products is to utilize less expensive beef cuts in the manufacture of a product that will provide satisfactory eating qualities. The ability to consolidate restructured meat pieces into steak-like and roast-like portions is of considerable interest to the meat industry as a means of upgrading the value of trimmings (Ford et al., 1978). Restructuring implies a fairly "coarse" form of processing which usually involves molding the meat into an acceptable, uniform shape. Often the meat is pretreated by mechanical tenderizing or some form of comminution as reported by Mawson (1977). Mandigo (1974) reported that restructuring offers the opportunity to have a product with both weight and shape control. Products can be formulated to specified compositional standards. Fat content can be carefully controlled, as can mouth-feel, juiciness and bind of the product (Mandigo, 1974). These factors are regulated through product formulation and processing variables during manufacture. Comminution long has been used as a means of increasing the acceptability of lower grade meats. Methods of comminution or particle reduction commonly used are plate grinders, rotating choppers and various kinds of emulsifying machines. Plate grinders operate by squeezing and extruding meat through a perforated plate. Rotating choppers chop meat into small particles with the use of a rotating bowl, and emulsifying machines use variations of the principles of forcing meat through a perforated plate at high speeds and pressures (Anonjmious, 1973). Newer and more common methods of comminution that have been used for restructured products include