Meat

Transformation of muscle into flesh

The muscle, immediately after the slaughter, is not edible due to its extreme hardness.

After the death of the animal we can distinguish three phases, which occur in all types of animals, including fish; their duration varies however according to size (they are much shorter in smaller animals):

• Pre rigor: from a few minutes to half an hour after the death of the animal. As mentioned, an anaerobic metabolism remains in the cells which leads to the transformation of sugars into lactic acid; for this reason there is a lowering of the pH which passes from 7 to 5.6 - 5.7.
• Rigor mortis: from 3-6 hours up to 24 hours after the death of the animal; in the absence of ATP, actin and myosin are bound irreversibly, the muscle shortens and the meat stiffens significantly, becoming particularly hard, therefore inedible.
• Post rigor: tenderizing phase due to the proteolytic action of enzymes on myofibrillar proteins; the meat returns soft and becomes edible, at the same time the pH increases up to values ​​of 6-6.5.

Other minor changes:

The redox potential changes, which from positive becomes negative due to the loss of mineral salts and above all calcium ions.
Finally, there is also a change in color due to the oxidation of myoglobin to oxyhemoglobin which is distinguished by the bright red color typical of fresh meat.

Color changes due to microbial proliferation

If the slaughtered meat remains exposed to the air for prolonged periods, the oxyhemoglobin oxidizes to methemoglobin, the iron atom passes from the Fe2 + to the Fe3 + form, and the meat takes on the typical brown color. It is clear that if the meat does not it is well preserved there may also be microbial alterations. The dark spots that we observe in the meat forgotten in the refrigerator are partly due to oxidation and partly to the development of a surface microbial flora which, although not very dangerous for human health, still makes the consumption of the food unadvisable; if instead the meat is forgotten at temperatures above 20 degrees, as happens when we leave the shopping in the car for a long time under the sun, a pathogenic flora develops with bacteria belonging mainly to the genus clostridium.

Meat preservation

The best method for preserving meat is the cold technique; around 0 ° C, if kept in cold rooms at controlled temperatures, it can be kept for about a month (attention, this is not valid for the home refrigerator, which is first of all calibrated on average at higher temperatures - around + 4 ° C - and secondly, it is opened and closed continuously, causing even sensitive temperature changes; for this reason the meat is kept in the refrigerator for only two or three days).

Freezing with rapid and ultra-rapid methods uses different technologies in relation to the size of the meat to be frozen. The slice can for example be frozen with plate systems or with cold air jets; if, on the other hand, we have to freeze a whole chicken, it is preferable to put it in refrigerated liquids, such as liquid nitrogen or CO2.

We can also extend the normal shelf life of meat by combining freezing with modified atmosphere packaging (with CO2 concentrations above 25%). Other preservation techniques, such as SMOKING, SALADING and DRYING, are used only in the home or in the industrial field to impart certain organoleptic characteristics to the meat.
An "other typical preservation technique is" BOXING: in this case the boiled meat is hot packed together with its gelatin (given by the collagen); subsequently the boxes are sterilized by appertisation (120 ° C for 40 min). Particular types of meat such as ham, sausage and tongue do not tolerate high temperatures and are simply pasteurized.

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