404 Chapter 23
reiterate, the choice of raw materials is
crucial in the manufacture of restructured
meats. Although restructuring is supposed to
add value to cheaper cuts, the starting raw
materials have to be of high quality in order
to be turned into an acceptable end product.
An excerpt of the National Meats Groups ’
raw material specifi cation (Table 23.2 ) pro-
vides a good example of these considerations.
National Meats is a New Zealand - based man-
ufacturer of restructured whole - tissue lamb
products for retail, H & R, and ready - meal
outlets around the world. Their specifi cation
clearly shows that very stringent require-
ments for raw material are imposed on
suppliers in order to ensure that the quality
and integrity of the fi nished products are
maintained.
If frozen meat is to be used in whole - tis-
sue restructuring, the meat should be tem-
pered to approximately − 1.5 ° to 2 ° C before
use. Sinews, tendons, glands, and excessive
amounts of connective tissues and fat should
be trimmed from the meat before restructur-
ing (Pearson and Gillett 1999 ). Depending on
the type of whole - tissue restructured meat to
be produced, the meat cut may be sectioned,
cut into strips of varying sizes, or left intact.
If the meat is to be diced into long strips, the
cutting should be done along the meat fi bers/
grains whenever possible. When making
steaks, cutting along the fi ber is done in order
to align the fi bers to be perpendicular to the
cut surface (Farouk et al. 2005c ). High con-
nective tissue cuts could be tenderized using
a mechanical tenderizer before restructuring.
Mechanical tenderization, also known as
blade tenderization or pinning, is the process
of physically disrupting the muscle structure
by penetrating the meat with closely spaced
thin, sharp blades, which disrupt the fi bers
and sever the connective tissue. This method
has been applied to successfully improve
the overall tenderness and tenderness vari-
ability, especially of lower - value cuts of beef
(Jeremiah et al. 1999 ; Kolle et al. 2004 ;
Pietrasik and Shand 2004 ; Rosenvold et al.compared in the whole - tissue restructuring of
beef (Esguerra 1994 ). Gutzke and Tobin
(1998) evaluated the use of commercially
available cold - set binders, including Pearl F,
Alginate, ACTIVA, and Protein Activated
Meat Binder in restructuring venison. Farouk
(2005b) compared Alginate and Activa in
restructuring beef; and Activa and Fibrimex
were compared in the restructuring of pork
(Flores et al. 2007 ). Outcomes of these and
other studies indicate that the choice of
binder depends on the end use of the product
and on the processing cost.
Processing of Whole - Tissue
Restructured Meats
The three basic methods of restructuring
meats include chunking and forming, fl aking
and forming, and tearing and forming.
Excellent reviews of these methods and of
the manufacture of UK - style grillsteaks have
been previously published (Secrist 1987 ;
Pearson and Gillett 1999 ; Sheard 2002 ). In
this chapter, the manufacturing of restruc-
tured meats from intact muscles or whole -
tissue meats is emphasized. In this method of
restructuring, grinding, chopping, and emul-
sifi cation are not used except for the prepara-
tion of binders; the raw materials used in the
products are section of muscles or muscle
strips that are bound by hot - or cold - set
binders.
Hot - Set Whole - Tissue Restructuring
The basic steps involved in hot - set restructur-
ing include: (1) raw material selection and
preparation; (2) creating a surface protein
matrix; (3) molding or shaping; (4) hot -
setting of surface protein matrix; (5) portion-
ing; and (6) packaging and storage.
Raw Material Selection and Preparation
All the considerations alluded to in the previ-
ous section on raw materials apply here. To