Since environmental exposure is a major source of Listeria monocytogenes contamination on fully cooked ready-to-eat products, cook-in-the-bag processing has become very important. By not exposing the product to the environment between cooking and packaging, the chance of Lm contamination is eliminated, which reduces the need for some of the antimicrobial agents and the post-packaging pasteurization process to eliminate Lm on ready-to-eat meat products.
Following a spring 2011 visit to AdvancePierre Foods’ Cincinnati processing plant, where the processor was pumping out a wide variety of formed protein products, The National Provisioner queried Tom Burroughs, director, Protein Research and Development for AdvancePierre, on some of the challenges and considerations through which processors need to work when developing and incorporating forming technology.
When manufacturing sausage products we essentially do four things; comminute meat (comminute is a fancy word for reduction in particle size i.e. grinding, flaking, dicing or chopping), season the product, manipulate proteins and shape the product.
The term “time-tested” may not properly describe the processes of grinding and stuffing meat, simply because it may not infer enough distance in time. To be certain, grinding protein is an art and skill that dates forever, and stuffing of meat into casings is just as longstanding a tradition as far as protein-processing goes.
According to the recent National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s (NCBA) “2010 National Meat Case Study,” whole-muscle beef products are holding their own in the meat case, representing 40 percent of packages at supermarkets and club stores.
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