Purpose :

Our purpose is analysing the meat and meat products and their quality parameters which are determination of total fat content as percent value, the moisture content, pH values, and off-odour of the products from şahin( sucuk), pınar(sausage), maret(sausage), pınar(salami), and banet(sucuk). 

Theory :

THE COMPOSITION OF MEAT:

Water

Water content can be decreased (e.g. dried or dehydrated meat), and it varies in many processed meats such as sausages, salamis, bacon and ham. During these processes, care must be taken to protect the nutritional and organoleptic (taste, smell, texture and appearance) properties of the meat.

Protein: Protein is the source of the essential amino acids necessary for life. It is the building block of the muscular tissue.

Fat: Fat itself consists of triglycerides (see below), and is the main energy reserve for the animal. Other important substances (e.g. some vitamins) are dissolved in this fat.

Soluble non-protein organic substances: These substances fall into two categories: nitrogen-based substances such as free amino acids and vitamins, and carbohydrates such as lactic acid and glucose.

Inorganic substances: The major minerals consist of phosphorous and potassium together with small amounts of sodium, magnesium, calcium, zinc, and other trace metals.

•         Addition of reducing sugars (e.g. glucose solids, dextrose) to the brine also helps in browning reactions during thermal processing to produce a desirable colour and a caramel flavour in some products such as bacon.

•         1–2%, are added to the brine during various commercial operations in order to lower the water activity of meat during curing.

Enhancing the texture and sensory quality of high pressure treatment meat products

        Although many in the food industry perceive high pressure treatment as a relatively new technology, early investigations examined the ability of high pressures to increase the shelf-life of milk treated at ambient temperatures. Since then, the effect of high pressure on micro-organisms, proteins and, more recently, in food processing has been studied. Work at The National Food Centre investigated the use of high pressure (150 MegaPascals – MPa) to enhance the functionality and acceptability of frankfurters with reduced salt and phosphate concentrations, and breakfast sausages with reduced phosphate, in an effort to address consumer demands for high quality products with fewer added ingredients.

        Sodium chloride (salt) and phosphate are essential ingredients in meat processing, where they act by solubilising the myofibrillar proteins that contribute to water-holding capacity, thus reducing cook loss. These ingredients also enhance fat binding in meat products, entrapping other ingredients to form a uniform and cohesive mass. Salt also decreases water activity, which significantly extends the shelf-life of the product. However, consumption of excess sodium chloride has become a major issue in the food industry because of the relationship between sodium and hyper-tension in humans. According to the US Department of Agriculture, phosphates are safe when added within the permitted concentration of 0.5%, but such additives generate adverse reactions from the consumer.

        Our research has examined high pressure to compensate for reduction in salt and/or phosphate in frankfurters and sausages. High pressure is obtained using a hydraulic pump and is applied to the products via a pressure-transferring medium. This results in uniform pressure transmission throughout the product, independent of product shape and size. Being a non-thermal process, product flavour and nutritional qualities are maintained.

        Our results indicated that frankfurters treated with high pressure (150MPa) had lower cooking losses than non-pressure treated products. Emulsion stability and texture of pressurised products were as acceptable as control frankfurters. Cook yield was also enhanced when phosphate concentration was reduced to 0.1%, and texture was improved in reduced-salt frankfurters after 300MPa pressure. Pressure treated (150MPa) sausages had similar stability and overall acceptability as non-treated products and texture profile analysis was enhanced when the phosphate was reduced to 0.25% after the pressure treatment. Overall flavour intensity of breakfast sausages with 0.25% phosphate was not affected by the pressure treatment.

        Although high pressure treatment is a batch process, these results are positive for the processed meat industry as a novel route to the production of additive-reduced meat products. Further investigations into minimal processing in the Meat Technology Department are concentrating on the use of high intensity ultrasound as a rapid, energy efficient technique to cook pressurised meat products.

RESULT & CALCILATIONS OF THE EXPERIMENT:

Group name	Fat content%	Off-odor	Moisture content%	pH
A1-Şahin Sucuk	32,46	+	45.7	6.5
A2-no mark Sucuk		+	30.08	5.04
A4-pınar Sausage	11.02	–	66.33	5.6
A5- maret Sausage		–	38	6.20
A6-no mark Sucuk		–	66.1	6.4
A7- pınar Salami		–	68	5.65
A9- banet Sucuk		–	54.7	6.03

 Calculation

Fat content:  

Weight of empty flask= 117.88 gr

Weight of the sample  =20.14 gr

Weight of the fat=2.22 gr

Weight of the fat and sample= 120.1gr

 Moisture content:

Weight of the sample= 5.02 gr

Weight of the petri   = 50.18 gr

Weight of samle and plate after drying= 51.87 gr

Weight of the sample and plate= 50.18+5.02= 55.2 gr

Ph value:

Ph of the sausages:5.6

Off odor test:                                                    

There is no off odor smelt.

TSE VALUES FOR SAUSAGE:

Components	Limits
Moisture (mass) Salt (mass) Total animal fats Potassium or sodium nitrate Potassium or sodium nitrite Starch Color and flavor  Bad flavot test pH Coloring matter	Max. 65%
	Max. 3%
	Min. 15%
	Max. 500 mg/kg
	Max. 200 mg/kg
	Max. 5%
	Appropriate
	Negative
	Max. 6.3
	No

TSE VALUES FOR SOUDJUCK:

Components	Limits
Moisture(mass) Salt(mass) Coloring matter pH fat(mass)        for first quality        for secand quality        for third quality protein(mass) N*6.25        for first quality        for secand quality        for third quality	Max. 40%
	Max. 5%
	None
	Max. 5.8 Min. 5.4
	Max. 30%
	Max. 40%
	Max. 50%
	Max. 22%
	Max. 20%
	Max. 20%

DISCUSSION OF THE EXPERIMENT:

        In this experiment, some quality parameters were examined which are fat content, moisture content, ph values and off-odor test. They are very important parameters to understand quality of the meat products also we can understand any adulteration taken place in processing.

    Fat content of the meat products are important. Fat content is characterized textural quality of meat products. Also fat content is very important for sensory quality flavor and mouth feel.

        And this sensory parameters change human to human so for this reason fat content acceptability range is very large. Al so standards of the type of meat products changing. , We can say that the amount of fat content in the sucuk is higher than the sausage. If we look at the TSE value for the fat content for sausage must be 15% of the mass at min. value and also fat content for soudjuck must be between 30 and 50% of the total mass depending on the quality of the soudjuck. If we look at our table the fat content for the  was recorded as a 11.02 which is no trade, comparing this result with TSE, our value is lower than the TSE. we can decide that this sausages is not a higher quality can be made on home for their mouth feel al so low fat content increase the shelf life of the soudjuck with decreasing the oxidation capability of the soudjuck. On the other hand, the fat content for soudjuck is recorded as 32.46%, if we compare this value for TSE, we can classified this soudjuck as first quality according to the TSE and then we can decide that this soudjuck is a first quality soudjuck.al so  we can decide that this sausages is not a higher quality can be made on home for their mouth feel al so low fat content increase the shelf life of the soudjuck with decreasing the oxidation capability of Therefore, we can say that the textural property of this soudjuck is good.

        The  other quality parameter is odor detection which is named as off-odor test. If we have a positive result means that odor of the sample is bad. If we look at our result, the şahin and no mark sucuk was given the positive result. This means that these products contain the ammonia gas, resulting from the reaction of the potassium hydroxide and also we can observe the some color changes from the products as a dark orange-brown color when they were given the bad odor. Ammonia gas production occur during microbial activity of microorganisms so this indicates spoilage of the food product.

           In addition to the another quality parameter of the meat product is the moisture content. The moisture content of meat product is very important due to the microbiological aspect, such as microbial spoilage, textural properties, and also important terms of yield. And moisture is added for adulteration by adding starch and enhancing trhe capability of moisture. As we discussed price of the water and meat water adulteration decreasing the production cost so usually factories which produce meat products use their moisture to reach their acceptable limits.  According to the TSE standards the moisture content for sausage must be 65% at max. value and for the sucuk must be 40% at a max. value.  If we compare these values with our results, moisture content for sucuk was recorded as 45%(şahin), 66%(no mark) and 54%(banet). This means that these products are susceptible to the spoilage easily, because the moisture content is higher than the TSE values. However, if we compare the sausage values for moisture content, our result is suitable for theTSE value.

          On the other hand, the pH of the meat products is very important due to the microbial aspect again. If pH increase too much, this causes purification in meat. If the ph of the meat increase at 6.7, causing  decomposition of meat proteins by the microorganisms. According to the TSE value, the ph for sausage must be 6.3 at max. value and also for the sucuk must be 5.4 and 5.8.If we compare our results, the ph value for sucuks are higher than the TSE value. This is dangerous for consumption. However, the ph values for the sausage is suitable for TSE value, there is no any risk for consumption.