Text B. Products of meat processing

The manufactured meat products can be grouped as follows: cured and pickled, cured and smoked, tenderized fresh, frozen, and canned.

Cured and pickled meats. Cured meats are those items which have had combined with them salt, sodium or potassium nitrite. Sugar and spices are optional ingredients.

The salt functions as a preservative while the nitrite and nitrate combine with the meat pigments to form fairly stable coloured compounds.

Cured and smoked meats. In the category of cured, smoked and cooked meats is a broad line of sausage products such as frankfurters and bologna, which differ from cured and pickled meats in that they are prepared from finely chopped (or comminuted) meat to which salt, sugar, spices and flavourings have been added. They may also include such items as cereals, milk powders, protein hy-drolysates, and other substances.

These products are not pickled since cure penetration is obtained during an extensive mincing or chopping procedure. To secure the low temperatures often necessary for stability during the heating process, suitable amounts of ice are incorporated during the chopping operation. Ice also introduces moisture and thus increases the acceptability of the end product by assuring proper juiciness.

The products are usually heated in the smoke house to approximate internal temperature of 65.6 - 76.7°C. Hardwood smoke is introduced, and the products are smoked for a length of time sufficient to impart the characteristic smoked flavour. This smoking operation further increases stability of the end products by depositing on the surface a certain quantity of bacteriostatic agents.