MEAT EMULSION VARIABLES - INFLUENCE OF SOME COMPOSITIONAL INGREDIENTS

Seen from a global perspective, the processed meat industry is confronted with an enormous complexity of formula and processing variables in today's environment. This is true for both the industrialized and developing countries, wherever finely comminuted meat products with percentages of lean meat ranging from 5 to 50% are processed. These situations call for an overhaul of some of the traditional thinking of proven principles that were once true for meat emulsions based on yesterday's values. Therefore, a new challenge will arise for the meat processor and the supplier of ingredients of strategic importance to work closely together in order to find long ranging solutions for a total system approach to obtain cost efficient quality products that meet consumers' expectations. To communicate with the global meat industry, the terms ''meat emulsion'' and ''meat batter'' have been used interchangeably.