Microbiological Safety and Shelf-Life of Low-Salt Meat Products—A Review

[EN] Salt is widely employed in different foods, especially in meat products, due to its very diverse and extended functionality. However, the high intake of sodium chloride in human diet has been under consideration for the last years, because it is related to serious health problems. The meat-processing industry and research institutions are evaluating different strategies to overcome the elevated salt concentrations in products without a quality reduction. Several properties could be directly or indirectly affected by a sodium chloride decrease. Among them, microbial stability could be shifted towards pathogen growth, posing a serious public health threat. Nonetheless, the majority of the literature available focuses attention on the sensorial and technological challenges that salt reduction implies. Thereafter, the need to discuss the consequences for shelf-life and microbial safety should be considered. Hence, this review aims to merge all the available knowledge regarding salt reduction in meat products, providing an assessment on how to obtain low salt products that are sensorily accepted by the consumer, technologically feasible from the perspective of the industry, and, in particular, safe with respect to microbial stability.S

Beyond standard PSE testing: An exploratory study of bioimpedance as a marker for ham defects

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Beyond standard PSE testing: An exploratory study of bioimpedance as a marker for ham defects

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Pigs: A stepwise RGB-D novel pig carcass cutting dataset

This paper presents a pig carcass cutting dataset, captured from a bespoke frame structure with 6 Intel® RealSense™ Depth Camera D415 cameras attached, and later recorded from a single camera attached to a robotic arm cycling through the positions previously defined by the frame structure. The data is composed of bags files recorded from the Intel’s SDK, which includes RGB-D data and camera intrinsic parameters for each sensor. In addition, ten JSON files with the transformation matrix for each camera in relation to the left/front camera in the structure are provided, five JSON files for the data recorded with the bespoke frame and five JSON files for the data captured with the robotic arm.acceptedVersio

Understanding metabolic phenomena accompanying high levels of yeast in broiler chicken diets and resulting carcass weight and meat quality changes.

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Additional post-mortem inspection procedures and laboratory methods as supplements for visual meat inspection of finishing pigs in Europe-Use and variability

In the EU, a post-mortem inspection of finishing pigs comprises visual inspections of the carcass and offal followed by additional examinations, such as palpation and incision of parts, when needed. Moreover, it can include various laboratory tests. Since European meat inspection is regulated by the EU, one may assume that post-mortem inspection is performed in the same way in the Member States. However, previous studies showed that variations exist. This article shows the results of a survey performed in September 2020 on how visual meat inspection of finishing pigs is applied in Europe. By using a questionnaire, palpations, incisions and other procedures for 10 gross pathological findings and laboratory methods applied by official veterinarians to evaluate the fitness of meat for human consumption were assessed. We received 44 responses from 26 European countries. Most respondents reported that visual meat inspection was a generally applied inspection method. The main reason for not applying visual meat inspection was export requirements. The most important reasons for applying palpations and incisions in addition to visual inspection were findings detected in ante- or post-mortem inspection. There was considerable variation in the use of palpations and incisions, other post-mortem procedures and laboratory tests to assess meat fitness for human consumption. The respondents mentioned some country-specific practices, but we also observed variations within the responding official veterinarians that could not be explained by country of origin or years of work experience. Additional detailed studies on the variation are needed before harmonisation of meat inspection procedures are attempted.Peer reviewe

Drivers, opportunities, and challenges of the European risk-based meat safety assurance system

The traditional meat safety system has significantly contributed to public health protection throughout the last century. However, it has been recognised that this system suffers many flaws ? the main being its limited ability to control the currently most important meat-borne hazards. The European Food Safety Authority evaluated meat inspection in the public health context, prioritised meat-borne hazards and proposed a generic framework for a new, risk-based meat safety assurance system. The proposed system aims to combine a range of preventive and control measures, applied at farms and abattoirs and integrated longitudinally, where official meat inspection is incorporated with producers? food safety management systems into a coherent whole. The modernisation process has recently started as a direct result of changes to relevant legislation in the European Union. Many challenges have been experienced while many opportunities are foreseen. More focus on targeted and risk-based inspection along the supply chain as well as use of new technologies may be a cost-effective and feasible way forward. Practical implementation of the system is expected to be a slow and careful process followed by thorough development, fine-tuning, and testing of practical feasibility and general impacts. Further progress that will lead to the full implementation is dependent on intensive research to fill knowledge gaps, enhance education and training and foster close collaboration of all the new system?s stakeholders

A European survey on post-mortem inspection of finishing pigs: Total condemnation criteria to declare meat unfit for human consumption

Meat inspection (MI) is essential to verify compliance with legal requirements related to human and animal health and animal welfare protections. Judgement criteria applied during MI, resulting in condemnation data of importance, among other things, for livestock producers and for benchmarking reasons. However, although the Meat Inspection Regulation sets out judgement criteria, most are generic, favouring flexibility, but also subjectivity. To address the degree of variation on total condemnation (TC) criteria applied during post-mortem inspection (PMI) of finishing pigs, an online survey was prepared aiming to collect this information from several European countries. The focus was on TC criteria regarding the following PMI findings: abscesses, arthritis, cachexia, erysipelas, icterus, Mycobacterium-like lesions, osteomyelitis, peritonitis, pleuritis and pneumonia. From September to November 2020, a total of 44 completed questionnaires were obtained from 26 European countries. The results showed a substantial variation in the TC criteria in place in the participating countries. One of the main reasons for the variability seen in the respondents' reported answers was related to the indicators used to define a generalised condition related to the 10 PMI findings addressed, making harmonisation a chal-lenge and avoiding to draw conclusions when comparing condemnation causes between abattoirs. This implies that it would make sense to look into how a generalised condition can be identified/described and how it should be judged. The results should be used as inspiration towards possible harmonisation, improving decision-making, and permitting comparative analysis between different reports to allow trend analyses and benchmarking.Peer reviewe

Theoretical Basis and Application for Measuring Pork Loin Drip Loss Using Microwave Spectroscopy

During cutting and processing of meat, the loss of water is critical in determining both product quality and value. From the point of slaughter until packaging, water is lost due to the hanging, movement, handling, and cutting of the carcass, with every 1% of lost water having the potential to cost a large meat processing plant somewhere in the region of  50,000 per day. Currently the options for monitoring the loss of water from meat, or determining its drip loss, are limited to destructive tests which take 24–72 h to complete. This paper presents results from work which has led to the development of a novel microwave cavity sensor capable of providing an indication of drip loss within 6 min, while demonstrating good correlation with the well-known EZ-Driploss method (R2 = 0.896)