JPH06277007A - Dry meat product and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the subject food such as beef jerky at low cost in greatly high drying efficiency from e.g. cheap waste meat by incorporating a meat food material with a composition comprising protein(s) and chitosan as a binder followed by freezing and drying in succession. CONSTITUTION:Firstly, an edible acid is added to a mixture of protein(s) (e.g. soybean protein) and chitosan, pref. a protein solution incorporated with chitosan and adjusted the pH to <=5.5 to effect dissolution of the chitosan followed by mixing the system by e.g. neutralization. Second, a meat food material is incorporated with the resultant composition as the binder followed by freezing and then drying pref. at 30-80 deg.C, thus obtaining the objective food. For this mixing operation, it is preferable that a low-speed mixing apparatus such as a twin- screw mixer be used.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a meat product, and more particularly to a dried meat product such as beef jerky using meat and scrap meat, and a method for producing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of cut meat for general consumers, a large amount of meat and scraps are produced as by-products. Some of this meat is very high quality, but it is generally traded inexpensively as ground meat or minced meat. Dry meat such as beef jerky is manufactured using a single piece of meat, the meat used as a raw material is expensive, and the size of meat that can be used is also limited.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the present invention, beef jerky or the like can be obtained by reconstituting meat that has low utility value, such as meat and scrap meat, at a low price, into a single piece of meat, and drying it. The objectives are to produce dried meat, to reduce the cost by the effect of increasing the amount, and to improve the drying efficiency.

[0004]

The present inventor has applied for a flexible sponge-like gel obtained by first preparing a complex of protein and chitosan and subjecting this to a freezing treatment (Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 3). -162407). Applying this basic technology,
We examined whether or not it could be used for restructured meat, and applied for a restructured meat obtained by adding a composition obtained by mixing protein and chitosan to a raw material for meat food and subjecting it to freeze treatment (Japanese Patent Application No. 4-87460). ). Furthermore, it was investigated whether a dried meat product could be obtained using this restructured meat. As a result, surprisingly, by using a protein-chitosan mixture as a binder, we succeeded in obtaining reconstituted dried meat with extremely high drying efficiency, and completed the present invention. As the meat used in the present invention, all meat such as beef, pork, poultry, lamb, or fish can be used. Any size of meat can be used.

In the present invention, a protein-chitosan mixture is prepared as a binding agent, and the meat is bound by mixing with the raw material meat and freezing. After that, to obtain dried meat, it is dried. As the protein used for the binder, soybean, protein, casein, whey protein, plasma protein and the like can be used. In the present invention, the protein is first dissolved in water, or an aqueous food material containing protein such as soy milk or milk is used as it is or diluted to obtain a protein solution having a desired concentration. The protein concentration may be about 0.01 to 6% by weight in the mixture,
If the amount of protein is excessive with respect to the amount of chitosan, gelation may not occur. The amount of chitosan is 0.1 to 5% by weight in the mixture for sufficient gelation, and 0.1 to 1 part by weight of protein.
-8 parts by weight is desirable. At this time, fat may be added to emulsify.

The fat to be added may be 5 to 50% by weight regardless of solid fat or liquid oil such as lard, beef tallow, soybean hydrogenated oil, rapeseed oil, corn oil and cottonseed oil. An emulsifier may be used for emulsification, but normally, emulsification is possible only with protein. Chitosan is added to the solution containing the obtained protein (fat if necessary). Any chitosan can be used as long as it has a deacetylation degree of 60% or more from the viewpoint of solubility.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, 0.1 to 5% by weight of chitosan is added to a protein solution of 0.1 to 6% by weight, and edible acid is further added to adjust the pH to 5.5 or less to dissolve the chitosan. When the pH is 5.5 or more, the chitosan is not sufficiently dissolved and gelation does not occur in the subsequent steps. After stirring until the chitosan is sufficiently dissolved, it is neutralized with sodium bicarbonate, phosphate, etc., and the pH is adjusted to 5.5-9, preferably 6-
Adjust to 7. When the pH is 5.0 or less, gelation does not occur even when frozen. When the pH is 5.0 to 5.5, a weak gel is formed, but it is easily dissolved by heating and cannot be used for restructured meat. When the pH is adjusted to 5.5 or more, preferably 6 to 7, a gel which is elastic and hard to tear and which is extremely suitable as a binder for restructured meat comes to be formed. When the pH is 9 or more, it has a strong alkaline taste and is not preferable as a food. Before adding chitosan, solid fats such as lard and beef tallow, or liquid oils such as corn oil and cottonseed oil may be added in an amount of 5 to 50% by weight to emulsify.

In the present invention, the protein-chitosan mixture thus obtained is mixed with the raw meat and then frozen, whereby the whole can be gelled and bound. The amount of protein-chitosan mixture is 10 to 100 parts by weight of raw meat.
100 parts by weight is preferred, but the protein-chitosan mixture is
Since the gel alone is formed by freezing, it can be mixed with the raw meat at an arbitrary ratio.

As a device for mixing, a low-speed device such as a twin-screw mixer which does not give excessive shear is desirable. The protein-chitosan-raw meat mixture thus obtained is subjected to freezing treatment to gelate and bind the whole. Furthermore, after freezing, at any temperature, preferably 30-80.
The dried meat of the present invention is obtained by drying at ℃.

In the case of producing beef jerky, the reconstructed meat after freezing is thinly sliced to about 5 mm and dried, or the thinly sliced meat is mixed as a raw material with a binder and spread thinly. It is recommended to freeze after freezing and dry. The restructured dry meat according to the present invention is characterized by having a very high drying efficiency as compared with a single piece of meat. One of the ways of expressing the amount of water contained in food is water activity, which is represented by the ratio of the vapor pressure of food to the vapor pressure of pure water at that temperature. The water activity of raw meat is usually about 0.99, but it is generally known that if the water activity is reduced to 0.85 by drying, spoilage bacteria cannot grow and the risk of spoilage due to storage disappears. The restructured dried meat according to the present invention has a structure in which a sponge-like binder gel exists between raw material meat pieces, and water in the center portion of the raw meat piece evaporates efficiently through the binder gel. The water activity can be rapidly reduced by drying for a short time.

[0011]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to examples. Example 1 (Beef jerky) 22 g of the isolated soybean protein was dissolved in 934 g of water, 300 g of purified beef tallow was added, and the mixture was heated to 80 ° C. K. After mixing with a homomixer to prepare an emulsion, add 16 g of chitosan and 16 g of lactic acid,
Mix well to obtain a pH 4.0 mixture. To this, 12 g of baking soda was added and mixed to obtain a protein-chitosan binder having a pH of 6.8.

1 kg of the above binder was added to 2 kg of red beef meat roughly cut to 1 to 2 cm by a silent cutter, mixed with a twin screw type mixer, packaged with a vacuum sealer and frozen. After thawing, slice the resulting restructured meat to a thickness of about 5 mm, dip it in the seasoning liquid for beef jerky, and put it in an oven at 35 ° C for water activity.
The beef jerky was obtained by drying to 0.85 or less. As a control, a piece of red beef sliced to a size of about 5 mm was dipped in synchronized taste liquid and dried under the same conditions to obtain a control beef jerky.

The time required for the water activity to dry to 0.85 was 48 hours for the control single-meat beef jerky and 24 hours for the restructured meat according to the invention. This shows the high drying efficiency of the restructured meat. Further, the binding property of the obtained beef jerky to the meat was good, and it had a marbling appearance and did not collapse during the drying step. In addition, the meat had a grainy texture and was soft enough to be eaten, and a favorable texture was obtained.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, dried meat such as beef jerky can be manufactured at a reduced cost by effectively utilizing the meat which has been conventionally low in utility value. In particular, by interposing the binder gel between the pieces of meat, it is possible to efficiently evaporate the water in the center of the meat and to obtain a dried meat product with significantly improved drying efficiency.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A dried meat product containing protein and chitosan as a binder. 2. A method for producing a dried meat product, which comprises adding a composition obtained by mixing protein and chitosan to a raw material for meat food, freeze-drying it, and then drying it.