AU4488399A - Dried seasoned meats - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Applicant(s): JAPAN TOBACCO INC.

Invention Title: DRIED SEASONED MEATS The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us:

SPECIFICATION

DRIED SEASONED MEATS FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a dried, seasoned meat which is very soft to eat and has good shelf stability, and to a method of producing the same.

."RELATED BACKGROUND ART o. There have been various methods for producing dried, seasoned oooo meat products, such as beef jerky. A known typical method is one in which a raw, frozen or chilled meat is soaked in a seasoning solution per se or after treatment with heating or drying, and then S dried with hot air or freeze-dried.

o e However, the dried, seasoned meat products produced by such oeooo ""method are generally quite hard so that not every one can masticate, and the fibers of the meat products often get in between the teeth.

Therefore, even persons who like to eat dried, seasoned meats cannot eat them too much.

Such undesirable hardening of dried meats is caused by being undergone a drying process under severe conditions for meat tissues drying with hot air) before or after seasoning the meats.

The drying process under severe conditions tends to cause destruction of meat tissues or reduction in water content of the finished dried meat product. As a result, the meat product is compressed and becomes hard. For the purpose of preventing the undesirable shrinkage (compression) of the meat product while at the same time maintaining a soft, crumbly texture, it is tried to perform the drying process under moderate conditions at a single low temperature. However, such drying process disadvantageously requires a long time of period for drying and cannot provide a dried meat product with a satisfactory softness. Even if a dried meat product with a satisfactory softness can be provided, there is still a problem that the water activity of the dried meat product excesses 0.87, resulting in poor shelf stability.

Accordingly, there is a need for a dried, seasoned meat which is soft to eat and has depth of taste and sufficient shelf stability.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION *"In one aspect, the present invention provides a dried, seasoned meat having water activity of from 0.75 to 0.86 and water content of from 25 to 40 wt%.

0: 0.

In another aspect, the invention provides a method of preparing a dried, seasoned meat comprising the following steps: contacting a men'with a first seasoning solution so that the meat is impregnated with the first seasoning solution; exposing the meat which is impregnated with the first seasoning solution to conditions so that the meat is freeze dried; contacting the freeze dried meat with a second seasoning solution which has a solid content of from 45 to 75 wt% so that the freeze dried meat is impregnated with the second seasoning solution; and exposing the meat which is impregnated with the second seasoning solution to a temperature of from about 5 to 15 0 C so that the meat is dried.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The dried, seasoned meat of the present invention can be produced using, as a raw material, a common livestock meat of, for example, cow, pig, chicken or sheep, a meat of other animal such as kangaroo, crocodile or emu, or a fish meat of, for example, shark.

The dried, seasoned meat has water activity of from 0.75 to 0.86 and water content of 25 to 40 wt%. Without falling within these ranges, the meat product cannot exhibit good shelf stability while maintaining a soft, crumble texture. Preferably, the water activity is from 0.78 to 0.83 and the water content is from 27 to wt%.

Water Activity Water activity is defined as the ratio of the humidity in a sealed container keeping food to the saturated humidity at the same temperature. Saturated humidity is the level of humidity when evaporation ceases at a particular temperature. The water activities of rice/bean, meat/fish, and vegetable/fruit are about 0.70, 0.98 and 0.99, respectively. Water activity is related to storage behaviour of food, and the food having high water activity is likely to be damaged by microorganism.

The method of producing the dried, seasoned meat of the present invention is described below in detail.

First, a raw meat is treated to remove undesirable materials a. *6 fat masses or connection tissues) therefrom, and then impregnated with a seasoning solution with or without qualityor S modifiers a color-developing agent). As a color-developing go agent, for example, sodium nitrite may be used. The finished meat product can develop a fresh color by heating the meat after being impregnated with a color-developing agent, without additional drying at higher temperatures drying with hot air or drying in the wind or sun). The solid content of the seasoning solution o o S" may be from 1 to 20 wt%. The meat with the color-developing agent is shaped in various configurations, including slices, dice, sticks or chips.

The shaped meat is freeze-dried to the extent that the internal water content becomes less than 5 wt%. As a result of the freeze-drying of the meat, numerous numbers of voids are formed within the meat, which is effective for uniform penetration of the seasoning solution into the meat. The freeze-drying has another effect that the water content of the meat in this stage is reduced sufficiently so that even a seasoning solution with low water activity with a high concentration) can penetrate into the meat texture rapidly and uniformly.

Then, the freeze-dried meat is soaked in a seasoning solution with or without heating. The seasoning solution may contain a common seasoning, including a fermentative seasoning soy •source and miso), an edible salt, a vineger, an amino acid-type oo e seasoning sodium glutamate), a nucleic acid-type seasoning inosinic acid), a seasoning extract beef extract), a r liquor a sweet sake (mirin) or a wine], a spice and a sugar.

Examples of the sugar include normal sugar, a sugar alcohol, a a. a.

polysaccharide, a monosaccharide and a disaccharide. In addition, an antioxidant and/or a pH-adjusting agent may also be incorporated.

The solid content of the seasoning solution may be from 45 to wt%, and preferably from 50 to 65 wt% (water activity: around 0.9) When soaking the freeze-dried meat into the seasoning solution, the ratio between the seasoning solution and the freezedried meat is about 7:1 to 3:1 by weight. The ratio falling within the range enables a sufficient impregnation of the seasoning solution into the meat. The seasoning solution in which the freeze-dried meat is soaked is heated to 60 to 90'C. The time for the soak may vary depending on the amount of the meat and the concentration of the seasoning solution, but is generally about from 15 to 60 minutes.

The meat impregnated with the seasoning solution is swished off the excess seasoning solution and then dried. The drying may be performed by ventilating exposing in the wind) at a temperature from 5 to o The following examples are given as more specific illustration of the invention. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the specific details set forth in the oo o •o examples.

EXAMPLES

00 Examnlpe 1 A beef round meat, from which fat layers, connection tissues and rinds had been removed, was uniformly impregnated with a seasoning solution (15 wt% based on the total weight of the meat) having solid content of 10 wt% and containing sodium nitrite as a color-developing agent. The meat was sliced in 2 mm thick and then freeze-dried. The resultant meat slices had water content of 5 A seasoning solution (50 kg) having a composition shown in Table 1 below was prepared and then heated to 75"C. The freezedried meat slices obtained above (10 kg) were soaked in the seasoning solution for 30 minutes.

The meat slices were swished off the excess seasoning solution and then dried at 10'C for 2 hours, thereby giving a dried, seasoned meat product. The resultant meat product had water content of 32 wt% and water activity of 0.81.

When the dried meat product was tasted by panelists, all of them evaluated that the dried meat product was soft and tasted good.

Table 1: Glucose syrup 46.9 Common (koikuchi) soy sauce 27.0 S* Sucrose 10.0 Edible salt 2.0 Dextrin 1.5 0*0* Beef extract 1.0 Spices 1.5 Tocopherol preparation 0.1 Balance water 10.0 0 Exampl 2 A beef round meat, from which fat layers, connection tissues and rinds had been removed, was soaked overnight in a seasoning solution having solid content of 15 wt% so that the seasoning solution is impregnated into the meat uniformly. The meat was sliced in 4 mm thick and then freeze-dried. The resultant meat slices had water content of 5 A seasoning solution (70 kg) having a composition shown in Table 2 below was prepared and then heated to 85'C. The freezedried meat slices obtained above (10 kg) was soaked in the seasoning solution for 60 minutes.

Thereafter, the meat was swished off the excess seasoning solution and then dried at 5'C for 4 hours, thereby giving a dried, seasoned meat product. The resultant dried meat product had water content of 28 wt% and water activity of 0.79.

When the dried meat product was tasted by panelists, all of them evaluated that the dried meat product was soft and tasted good.

Table 2: Sorbitol 46.0 Common (koikuchi) soy sauce 24.8 Sucrose 15.0 SPotato starch 1.5 Sodium glutamate 1.5 Spices 1.5 So Edible salt 0.5 Sodium ascorbate 0.2 S Balance water 9.0 Cnmparative Example Each of the dried meat product produced in Example 2 and two types of commercial dried meat products (a beef jerky from Golden Vally and a dried pork from FLENCO) was determined on the maximum load to evaluate the degree of softness of each meat product numerically.

Measurement device: a high resolution-type creep meter, "rheoner model RE-3305" (a product by Yamaden Corporation); Plunger: No 13, 0 5 mm sphere Environmental conditions: temperature: 24*C, humidity: Rate of determination (indentation rate): 1.0 mm/sec.; and Number of determination: five samples.

As a result of the.determination, it was found that the degree of softness was 230 to 380 gf for the dried meat product of Example 2, 920 to 4170 gf for the beef jerky from Golden Vally, and 750 to 2560 gf for the dried pork from FLENCO. The results demonstrate that the dried meat product of the present invention is significantly soft compared with the known commercial products.

As mentioned above, the dried, seasoz6ed meat produced according to the present invention can be soft and have depth of taste and good shelf stability even at the water activity of less than 0.87.

The invention has been described in detail with reference to various embodiments, and it will now be apparent from the foregoing to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the invention in its broader aspects, and it is the invention, therefore, in the appended claims to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit of the invention.

In the claims which follow and in the preceding summary of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word 41 comprising" is used in the sense of "including", i.e. the features specified may be associated with further features in various embodiments of the invention.

Claims (2)

1. A dried, seasoned meat having water activity of from 0.75 to 0.86 and water content of from 25 to 40 wt%. Dated this 31st day of August 1999 JAPAN TOBACCO INC. By their Patent Attorneys GRIFFITH HACK .0e0

6. op0 0: g* 0