Handbook of Meat Processing

Preface

For centuries, meat and its derived products
have constituted some of the most important
foods consumed in many countries around
the world. Despite this important role, there
are few books dealing with meat and its
processing technologies. This book provides
the reader with an extensive description of
meat processing, giving the latest advances
in technologies, manufacturing processes,
and tools for the effective control of safety
and quality during processing.
To achieve this goal, the book contains 31
chapters distributed in three parts. The fi rst
part deals with the description of meat chem-
istry, its quality for further processing,
and the main technologies used in meat
processing, such as decontamination, aging,
freezing, curing, emulsifi cation, thermal pro-
cessing, fermentation, starter cultures, drying,
smoking, packaging, novel technologies,
and cleaning. The second part describes the
manufacture and main characteristics of

ix

worldwide meat products such as cooked

ham and sausages, bacon, canned products

and p â t é , dry - cured ham, mold - ripened sau-

sages, semidry and dry fermented sausages,

restructured meats, and functional meat prod-

ucts. The third part presents effi cient strate-

gies to control the sensory and safety quality

of meat and meat products, including physi-

cal sensors, sensory evaluation, chemical

and microbial hazards, detection of GMOs,

HACCP, and quality assurance.

The chapters have been written by distin-

guished international experts from fi fteen

countries. The editor wishes to thank all the

contributors for their hard work and for

sharing their valuable experience, as well as

to thank the production team at Wiley -

Blackwell. I also want to express my appre-

ciation to Ms. Susan Engelken for her kind

support and coordination of this book.

Fidel Toldr á