Meat+Poultry - September 2017 - 77

Adding water to whole muscle items is
accomplished by one of three methods. The
traditional approach is to submerse the meat
in brine.
"This is time and space intensive and not
seen in modern meat processing," Lowder
says. "Tumbling the product with the solution,
often under vacuum, is appropriate for smaller
items such as chicken breasts. A third option is
injection by pressurizing the solution through
needles directly into the muscle. This is useful
for larger items, such as roast beef, which do
not allow for a thorough or consistent diffusion
of solution by soaking or tumbling."
Enhancing whole muscle prior to cooking
not only increases succulence and adds flavor,
it provides the chef or home cook with some
leeway in terms of overcooking and potentially
drying the meat. This is particularly true for
pork and poultry, which many consumers tend
to overcook for food safety reasons.
"Cooking naturally drives off moisture from
the protein and reduces the juiciness of the
finished product," says Dan Putnam, technical
manager, Grain Processing Corp., Muscatine,
Iowa. "Adding moisture and enhancing
the protein's ability to retain that moisture
ultimately makes a more consumer-friendly
product, especially with leaner meats."
Binding moisture in whole muscle also
assists with reducing purge, the liquid that
accumulates in the bottom of the package
during display. Consumers typically find purge
to be unappealing, as it looks like the animal's
blood. This has some retailers discarding
product before its expiration date, resulting in
financial loss. 
Further, from an economic perspective,
moisture enhancement increases yield. After
all, water is a very inexpensive ingredient.
With that added water, processors can also
add ingredients to assist with retaining color,
slowing lipid oxidation and reducing microbial
growth. This extends shelf life and improves
safety, with longer expiration dates translating
to reduced waste and happier customers.

complement the added moisture.
"One example is the limit of 3 percent
added water to fresh sausage," says Patrick
Hosch, applications research manager,
Essentia Protein Solutions, Ankeny, Iowa.
"Cooked sausages are limited to 10 percent
added water. Bacon is usually injected with a
brine then smoked and heat treated. By rule,
bacon must lose the added weight of brine
and be back to its original weight prior to sale.
Products like roast beef or fresh pork loin may
claim that a certain percentage of a solution is
included at the time of sale."
Regarding declaration of the enhancement,
the US Dept. of Agriculture published a rule
in 2011 requiring enhanced product to declare
on package labels that percentage of added
solution. This rule went into effect in 2014.
"The legal limits of moisture and ingredient
addition vary by product," Putnam says. "Some
are regulated by protein content of the cooked
product (controlling the protein content
dilution by the additional moisture), some by
yield of cooked versus uncooked product, and
some only by the amount of binder allowed to
hold the added moisture, which itself becomes
limited by the ability of the meat and binder to
hold the added moisture."
Jim Anderson, regional market segment
lead, North America-meat, poultry and

"Adding
moisture and
enhancing
the protein's
ability to
retain that
moisture
ultimately
makes a more
consumerfriendly
product."
- DAN PUTNAM

Flavors and seasonings
can be added to chops and
steaks through a simple
tumble marination. The
moisture penetrates the
muscle, which prevents
the meat from burning
and drying when grilled.

REGULATIONS AND GUIDELINES
Juicing up meat comes with some federal
guidelines and limitations. This is in terms
of both how much moisture can be added
to the product, how addition is declared
and the addition of ingredients to assist or
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