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Using DFD meat to make beef hot dogs
By Ana Elia Rocha McGuire <mailto:amcg...@carnetec.com> on 3/1/2010
In this article:
Using the right ingredients <http://www.meatingplace.com/MembersOnly/technology/details.aspx?item=14430#1>
High pH challenges <http://www.meatingplace.com/MembersOnly/technology/details.aspx?item=14430#2>
References <http://www.meatingplace.com/MembersOnly/technology/details.aspx?item=14430#3>
Related articles <http://www.meatingplace.com/MembersOnly/technology/details.aspx?item=14430#4>
Comments and insights <http://www.meatingplace.com/MembersOnly/technology/details.aspx?item=14430#5>
Dark, firm and dry (DFD) meat can be the result of prolonged stress in animals prior to slaughter, either because the animals have been underfed, or they are overly fatigued due to transportation and mishandling, or both.
Although DFD meat occurs more often in beef, it can also be present in pork and poultry meat. Since most of the glycogen in the muscles of these animals has been depleted by the time they are slaughtered, insufficient lactic acid is produced during the conversion of muscle to meat, and the meat will have a pH of 6.0 or greater. This high pH shifts proteins from their isoelectric point, allowing them to be more soluble and to hold on to most of their water, which is an advantage for meat processors.
DFD meat can be used and transformed into high-quality products, especially those made with emulsified meat, such as hot dogs. It is not recommended for whole-muscle and cured products, since the resulting color generally is not acceptable to consumers. DFD meat's ability to bind water also can be a challenge in manufacturing dried products.
Using the right ingredients
DFD meat can be used as a percentage in hot dog formulations. Meat emulsions made with 100 percent DFD beef (pH 6.2) were more stable than meat emulsions formulated with normal meat and 75 percent, 50percent and 25 percent DFD meat (all treatments formulated to10 percent fat and 30 percent added water). Descriptive sensory data of frankfurters formulated with these emulsions indicated no differences among treatments for juiciness, aroma, basic taste and mouthfeel, but found that frankfurters containing at least 50 percent DFD meat were harder (Garcia, et. al.).
In emulsified products, hardness can be balanced out with the use of gums and starches. However, research has shown that some gums and starches work better than others when using DFD meat.
In an experiment in which pork beaker sausages were analyzed to see the effects of meat pH on carrageenans (Trius, et al.), meat batters that contained lambda-carrageenan had high water retention, but did not show an increase in firmness in the cooked sausage product. Research suggested that lambda-carrageenan has a potential use in products manufactured with DFD meat, and in which high-moisture, low-fat and softness are desired.
In another study in which different types of gums were used in beef sausages, meat batters with NaOH-adjusted pH of 6.2 and 2.5 percent NaCl-, the increase in pH sharply enhanced the bind strength and improve cooking yields of all gum treatments, although only carrageenan gums (iota and kappa) did so without compromising textural attributes of the products (Xiong, et al.). The other gums in this study were alginate, locus bean and a combination of locus bean and xanthan gum. These yielded softer, more deformable, crumbly and slippery sausages compared to non-gum sausages.
For meat batters made with DFD chicken breast (pH greater than 6.1), regular and modified potato starches and modified tapioca starch significantly reduced cooking losses, whereas regular tapioca starch was not as efficient. However, all of these starches made the batters firmer compared to the control treatment made with normal meat (Zhang and Barbut).
High pH challenges
The characteristic high pH of DFD meat and its deficiencies of glucose and glycolytic intermediates also make this type of meat more appealing for microorganisms, which is a disadvantage, because DFD meat and products made with it have a shorter shelf life.
Usually bacterial spoilage is evident at an early stage of growth of the meat flora because with no glucose to feed from,bacteria uses proteins' amino acids. Also, the aerobic flora produces an off odor at an early stage. Newtona and Gilla recommend the addition of glucose to prevent aerobic spoilage and a treatment that would reduce surface pH to prevent early anaerobic spoilage. In the beef frankfurters experiment mentioned above, authors concluded that due to the increase in microbial growth during refrigerated storage, an antimicrobial is necessary to improve shelf life (Garcia, et al.).
References
* Evaluation of beef frankfurters manufactured from high and normal pH shoulder clods. L. G. Garcia, W. N. Osburn*, D. S. Hale, and J. W. Savell, Texas A&M University, College Station. RMC 2009 poster presentation.
* The microbiology of DFD fresh meats: A review. K.G. Newtona and C.O. Gilla. Meat Industry Research Institute of New Zealand (Inc.), PO Box 617, Hamilton, New Zealand,1980.
* Effects of regular and modified starches on cooked pale, soft, and exudative; normal; and dry, firm and dark beast meat batters. L. Zhangh and S. Barbut. Journal of Poultry Science, 2005.
* Textural and sensory properties of Low-fat beef sausage with added water and polysaccharides as affected by pH and salt. Y.L. Xiong, D.C. Noel and W.G. Moody. Journal of Food Science, 1999.
* Carrageenans and beaker sausage as affected by pH and sodium tripolyphosphate. A. Trius, J.G. Sebranek, R.E. Rust and J.M. Carr. Journal of Food Science, 1994.
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