BLACKSBURG, VA -- Consumers will have more tender meat cuts with less chance of harmful microbes causing food-borne illnesses with a new processing method, a Virginia Tech scientist thinks.
Jim Claus, associate professor of food science and technology, is working with Hydrodyne Inc. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in adapting a still-experimental meat tenderizing technology to chicken meat and to killing the micro-organisms that can contaminate any kind of meat.
Claus is putting the technology to work in a small room on the Virginia Tech campus he calls the "boom room." In the center of it stands a sealed stainless steel tank in which a tough cut of meet is submerged in water. A small explosive charge is suspended in the water a short distance from the meat. The explosion sends supersonic shock waves pulsing through the water -- and through the meat.
"It looked the same [as it did before the explosiion], but when we tested it for tenderness there was a considerable improvement." Claus says.
Under the microscope, the effect of the shock waves is apparent: the matrix of interconnecting protein filaments in the muscle are radically broken. Those tight interconnections are what can give a poor cut of meat its toughness. When they are broken apart, the toughness largely disappears.
Claus is collaborating with Puerto Rico-based Hydrodyne Inc. and Morse B. Solomon with the Meat Science Research Laboratory of the USDA's Agriculture Research Service. Hydrodyne hopes to begin commercial use of the Hydrodyne process for beef.
Tests conducted by Solomon improved beef tenderness by 40 to 70 percent. Claus and Solomon are taking Hydrodyne further, researching its potential use for tenderizing chicken. Along with Merle Pierson, professor of food science and technology, they are also working to determine whether Hydrodyne can be used to kill spoiling organisms that limit the shelf life of meat products and pathogens that can spread illness if the meat is not properly cooked.
In chicken processing, particularly in broiler breast production, Claus thinks Hydrodyne can have an important impact on efficiency by reducing the four to six hours now required for aging. That may not seem like much time, but poultry processing is such a high-volume industry that even that reduction in time results in real cost savings for the operation.
"The weak link in chicken processing is the need for aging," Claus says. "If the meat is taken off the bone before aging you end up with unacceptable tenderness. If we can eliminate this step we can vastly increase the volume of production."
Claus is placing the meat in the Hydrodyne chamber just minutes into processing rather than hours. The explosion, he says, may make the biochemical processes that take four to six hours during aging irrelevant.
Using explosives may be a good way to destroy micro-organisms as well. "The same thing should be happening to the microscopic organisms that is happening to the meat: the energy from the explosion should be tearing apart their cellular structure," he says. "We are working with some of these spoilage organisms to measure just how effective this is in this regard."
For this testing they are using ground beef. They expose meat to explosive pressures ranging from 12,000 to 70,000 pounds per square inch. At the higher pressures, Claus says, damage to the meat product may occur. Testing for product quality, however, is another step required in the research.
The Hydrodyne process was invented by John B. Long, who established Hydrodyne Inc. The process has been extensively tested for beef by Solomon at the USDA laboratory in Beltsville, Md. Solomon holds adjunct faculty status with Virginia Tech.