JPH034737A - Processing method keeping quality of fresh meats - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent discoloration of color of meat and keep quality by treating the surface of raw fresh meats such as edible meats, fishes and shellfishes with water-soluble base and oxygen gas. CONSTITUTION:The surface of raw fresh meats such as edible meats, fishes and shellfishes is treated with water-soluble base (preferably ammonia, sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, arginine, or lysine) and oxygen gas. Besides, use in combination with common salt in said process is preferable.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a method for preserving the quality of edible fresh meat such as meat, poultry meat, seafood meat, etc., and more specifically, it relates to a method for processing edible fresh meat such as meat, poultry meat, seafood meat, etc. to maintain the quality thereof, and more specifically, to treatment with a water-soluble base and oxygen gas. This invention mainly relates to a processing method that prevents discoloration and fading of flesh color and maintains quality.

[Conventional technology]

Fresh beef, tuna, and other fresh meats have become widely distributed with the development of distribution mechanisms such as cold chains, but these fresh meats are susceptible to quality deterioration, and even if distributed at low temperatures, However, discoloration, fading, and rotting are likely to occur.
Difficult to store for long periods of time.

Various methods have been used to maintain the freshness of fresh foods and improve their preservability, including methods that physically inhibit deterioration such as low temperature and freezing, and chemical agents such as preservatives. There are methods using gas replacement or deoxidation treatment to cut off oxygen, which causes quality deterioration.

Each of these freshness preservation methods has its own problems, and their effectiveness is not completely satisfactory, so they are rarely used alone, and are often used in combination with several methods, but they are still not effective. At present, a sufficient and effective method is awaited.

Among these, fresh red meat such as beef, pork, tuna, and bonito meat is prone to discoloration of muscle pigments and blood pigments and browning, resulting in extremely rapid quality deterioration. Therefore, despite the high demand for quality maintenance, because it is a perishable product, it cannot be subjected to intensive processing, and this has remained a major challenge.

Among these, for meat such as beef and pork, gas exchange packaging is adopted in some cases by sealing the meat with a mixed gas such as carbon dioxide, oxygen gas, and nitrogen gas. Although it has been effective, it has not yet withstood long-term storage and has not reached a satisfactory state.

On the other hand, red meat such as tuna and bonito is 150 yen.
It is essential to store the food at an ultra-low temperature of about 30°F, and if it is left in a fresh state for just a few hours, it will lose its bright red color, turn brown, and lose its value as a food, even though it has not spoiled. I end up.

Several proposals have been made to address these problems, such as JP-A-57-50874 and JP-A-63-11667.
No. 6, No. 64-71437, but all of them are insufficiently effective and have not been widely put into practical use.

[Purpose and structure]

An object of the present invention is to provide a quality preservation processing method that maintains the color of fresh meat, maintains freshness and quality for a long period of time, and provides excellent fresh meat.

As a result of extensive research and experimentation, the present inventors have found that this objective can be achieved by treating the surface of such fresh meat with a water-soluble base and oxygen gas, or by further treating the surface with common salt. It was discovered that this can be done.

[Detailed description of the invention]

The present invention will be explained in detail below.

Fresh meat includes meat such as beef and horse meat, poultry meat such as chicken, seafood such as bonito, tuna, yellowtail, mackerel, sardines, red clam and octopus, meat such as aquatic animal meat, and organ meat such as liver. , fish roe, etc., meat and its accompanying edible parts.

The surface of these fresh meats is treated with a water-soluble base.

Here, the water-soluble base refers to a water-soluble basic substance, and includes all compounds that dissolve in water and exhibit liquid alkalinity. Among them, basic amino acids such as ammonia, sodium carbonate, and arginine are preferably used.

Among the water-soluble bases, ammonia is best brought into contact in a gaseous state, so that the meat and ammonia react uniformly without making the inner surface watery. Generally, raw meat is in an acidic state due to the effects of produced lactic acid, etc., so it easily absorbs ammonia gas and diffuses it to the center of the meat. The optimum amount of ammonia gas to be treated at this time is to raise the pH of the salmon meat to a neutral range around 7, and the gas concentration during treatment is preferably about 1 to 5%.

If it is too thin, it will be ineffective, and if it is too thick, it will cause degeneration and a strange odor.

Further, ammonia may be brought into contact in an aqueous solution state, but the treatment is inferior to a gaseous state, as the inner surface becomes watery, denaturation occurs on the surface, and internal diffusion is weak. However, in the case of frozen raw meat, it is also possible to glaze the outer surface while it is frozen, and any of gas, liquid, and powder can be employed in the present invention.

As other water-soluble tri groups, alkali metal carbonates such as sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate, or bicarbonates and basic amino acids such as arginine and lysine are preferably used. Since these are less likely to cause denaturation or dissolution of proteins on the surface or inside of salmon meat, which occurs when strong bases are used, they can usually be used as an aqueous solution by immersing fresh meat in the solution. In addition, contact treatment can be carried out by spraying the surface of the salmon meat in the form of mist or water droplets, glazing the frozen salmon meat, or scattering powder.

The purpose of these water-soluble base treatments is to almost neutralize the acidic substances produced by the self-decomposition of fresh meat and bring the meat pH closer to the neutral range of around 7. The optimum treatment conditions vary depending on the type, form, properties, etc., and when a water-soluble base is used as an aqueous solution, it is usually used as a solution with a concentration of 1 to 30% by weight.

Of course, water-soluble bases can be used in combination of several types; for example, they can be used in combination with salts, etc. as in the case of so-called pH buffers, and they can also be used as complex amino acid seasonings rich in basic amino acids. can do.

Furthermore, when salt is used in conjunction with this treatment with a water-soluble base, the effect of penetrating into the inside of the meat will be enhanced, swelling of the inner and outer surfaces will be suppressed, and the color and luster will be improved.

Next, the fresh meat is brought into contact with oxygen gas simultaneously with or after the water-soluble base treatment. Oxygen gas changes the muscle pigment myoglobin to bright red oxymyoglobin, which does not change to brown metmyoglobin and allows the flesh to retain its color. Contact with oxygen gas requires a little reaction time, and if the partial pressure of oxygen is low, it is likely to be converted to meth, so it is preferable to package salmon meat together with oxygen gas using a packaging material.

That is, meat is packaged with oxygen gas using a normal gas displacement packaging machine. The oxygen gas concentration at this time needs to be 50% or more, which is much higher than the oxygen concentration in the air, and 50 to 90% is practically preferable. The gas composition other than oxygen at this time may be air, nitrogen gas or other inert gas.

When carrying out the water-soluble base treatment and oxygen gas treatment at the same time, gas exchange packaging may be performed with a mixed gas of oxygen and water-soluble base, and when carrying out the two-step process, the oxygen gas treatment is first carried out after the water-soluble base treatment. It can be packaged with gas.

Alternatively, the oxygen gas treatment can be carried out first, followed by the water-soluble base treatment. In this case, the meat is first treated with oxygen gas having the above composition, and then the meat is subjected to ammonia gas displacement packaging using a gas displacement packaging machine. In this case, it is possible to maintain the color and freshness of the meat in the same way.

〔Example〕

Experimental Example 1 Tuna sashimi was packaged in gas using various gases.
After storage at 0°C for 3 days, the difference in flesh color was measured using a Minolta colorimeter, and the results are shown in Table 1.

Nitrogen Carbon Dioxide Oxygen Ammonia Oxygen + Ammonia (8:2) Nitrogen + Ammonia (8:2) Carbon Dioxide + Ammonia (8:2) 29.7 27.4 29.0 36.0 069 27.4 28.4 8 .8 8, O 12,6 15,0 11,9 6,3 7,9 Brown Brown Red Brown Red Brown Bright Red Dark Purple Brown Of the color differences, the a/b value correlates well with the degree of redness, and this value is 2 The above indicates that the meat maintains a fresh color, but as shown in the table, a synergistic effect is observed only when ammonia and oxygen gas are used together, and a good bright red color is maintained and the taste is also good. Ta.

Experimental Example 2 Using the same tuna sashimi as in Experimental Example 1, it was immersed for 5 minutes in the various soaking solutions shown in Table 2, then packaged with gas exchange with various gases, and stored at 5°C for 2 days. The results of determining the quality are shown in Table 2.

The value here is a numerical value expressed by the following formula, and is used as a freshness index.

The measurement method is the above formula, where the denominator is 250 nm of the perchloric acid extract of fish meat.
The absorbance value is taken as the absorbance value at 250 nm after applying the extract to an anion exchange resin column to remove nucleotides.
It was measured as the absorbance value at .

In general, the value is 10% or less for extremely fresh fish such as immediately killed fish, around 20% for highly fresh products, and 40 to 60% for freshly killed fish.

As shown in Table 2, the quality preservation effect was observed only when oxygen gas treatment was added to the treatment using an appropriate amount of water-soluble base, and when salt was used in combination.・Both gloss and taste were good.

Table 2 Example 1 Bigeye tuna meat frozen at an ultra-low temperature was cut into pieces weighing 200 g each using a Pantone machine. After thawing this, it was placed in a sealed chamber, and ammonia gas was blown into the chamber to give a gas concentration of 1.2%, and the mixture was held for 3 minutes, and then taken out to obtain treated tuna meat. Next, place this tuna meat on a styrofoam tray,
It was placed in a nylon polyethylene bag of size 12 x 20 (up to) and packaged with gas exchange using oxygen gas to obtain a tuna fence for sashimi. After storing it in a refrigerator at 5°C for 2 days, the meat was opened and cut into sashimi for sensory and taste tests, and the meat was bright red in color, had good taste, and was of excellent quality. On the other hand, the control tuna meat that was stored as it was at 5° C. for 2 days without this treatment had a brown color and was not edible.

The color difference results between the thus obtained product of the present invention and a control product which was not subjected to such treatment are as shown in Table 3 below.

Table 3 L a b a/b color tone Inventive product 29.2 8.3 3.7 2.24 Bright red Example 2 Beef waas meat was sliced into 3 mm thick pieces, and the thinly sliced meat 10
0 g was placed on a styrofoam tray, and gas-packed in a polyvinyl alcohol bag using a mixed gas of 80% oxygen, 15% air, and 5% ammonia using a gas displacement packaging machine.

After storing this at 10° C. for 4 days, a sensory test was conducted in the same manner as in Example 1. The flesh color was bright red and the quality was good. On the other hand, the control loin meat, which was not subjected to this treatment and was stored at 110° C. for 4 days, turned brown and deteriorated.

The color difference results are shown in Table 4 below.

Table 4 L a b a/b color tone Invention product Before storage 34.4 15.8 7.5 2.
11 After bright red storage 35.5 15.2 7.6
2.00 Bright red control product Before storage 40.8 +4
．． 6 7.2 2.03 Bright red after storage 41.7
5.8 9.8 0.59 Brown Example 3 Frozen bonito cut into quarters was soaked in a mixed aqueous solution of 7% by weight of sodium carbonate and 3% by weight of common salt at a liquid temperature of 10°C for 15 minutes, and half of it was immersed. The product was thawed, taken out from the aqueous solution, placed on a polystyrene tray, placed in a polyethylene bag, and packaged with gas exchange using oxygen gas. After being left to age in a refrigerator at 5° C. overnight, the package was opened and repackaged in simple stretch packaging using polyvinylidene chloride wrap. After being stored in a refrigerator at 10° C. for one day, the freshness quality was measured. As a result, the product was found to have good freshness, bright red color, and good taste. On the other hand, the bonito meat control product, which was stored without any treatment according to the present invention, was browned and had no value in terms of appearance. The results are shown in Table 5.

Table 5 shows values (%) Number of viable bacteria (count/g) Color and texture control product 21.8 6.0 After immersing the fillet for 10 minutes in a 20% by weight aqueous solution of an amino acid complex seasoning containing high arginine, in which 60% of the total amino acids are occupied by L-arginine, 70% by volume of oxygen and 30% by volume of carbon dioxide. Gas exchanged packaging using a mixed gas of
After storage for a while, we measured the freshness quality, and as shown in Table 6, the freshness was good, the flesh color was transparent and glossy, and the texture was firm and chewy, and it was delicious.

On the other hand, a control product of yellowtail that was stored in ice without undergoing any treatment according to the present invention had an opaque flesh color, and the blood and flesh part was black and had a weak texture and was unpleasant in taste.

Table 6 K (ifIC%) Color Tone Outer surface adhesive Blood and flesh tone Control product 12.1 White and no transparency None
Black [Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, the surface of fresh meat such as meat and fish can be treated with a water-soluble base such as ammonia, sodium carbonate, or a basic amino acid and oxygen gas, or in combination with salt. By processing these fresh meats such as meat and fish, the freshness can be maintained and the quality can be maintained and improved.
The storage stability can be more than doubled compared to conventional methods. In particular, since the muscle pigment myoglobin in red meat can be suitably converted into oxymyoglobin, it is possible to obtain salmon meat with a bright color and excellent luster, which is the first quality factor of salmon meat, and also to improve the meat juice. Since spillage, or so-called drip, can be prevented, the taste is improved and extremely useful effects are provided.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method for maintaining the quality of fresh meat, including treating the surface of fresh meat and seafood with a water-soluble base and oxygen gas. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the water-soluble base is ammonia. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the water-soluble base is an alkali metal carbonate or bicarbonate such as sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the water-soluble base is a basic amino acid such as arginine or lysine. 5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the treatment is carried out in combination with common salt.