Thermal Food Processing

Thermal Processing of Meat Products 163
TABLE 6.2
Classification of Some Processed, Ready-to-Eat (RTE)
Meat and Poultry Products
Dried Products
Basturma, pastirma, basturmi, beef sticks, carne seca, dried beef, dry duck breast, meat/poultry jerky
Salt-Cured Products a
Cappicola, coppa, country ham, dry cured duck, parma ham, prosciutto, prosciutti
Fermented Products b
Alessandri (dry sausage), apenino (dry sausage), Arles or D’Arles (dry sausage), blockwurst (semidry
sausage), cacciatore/cacciatora (dry sausage), cervelat, soft cervelat, chorizo, Lebanon bologna,
pepperoni, salami, soft salami (Genoa, Italian, German, summer sausage, thuringer, soft thuringer)
Cooked or Otherwise Processed Whole or Comminuted Products
Meat: Berliner (cooked, smoked sausage), bologna, cooked bratwurst, Braunschweiger/liver sausage,
breakfast link sausage or patties, brown-and-serve sausage, burritos, cheese smokies, cheesefurter,
cheesewurst/cheddarwurst, chili, chorizo, cooked beef, cooked ham, cooked pork in BBQ sauce,
cotto salami, Fleischkaese (cured, cooked sausage), frankfurters, gyros, meat loaf, meat salads,
frozen meat soups, Nem-Chua (cooked, pickled ham with shredded pork skin), pasta with meat
sauce, pastrami, pickled pig’s feet in vinegar, pickled sausages/meat in vinegar, piroshki, pork
barbecue, pork sausage patties, ravioli, roast beef, roast pork, souse, stews, white hots, wieners
Poultry (includes products containing any amount of poultry)
Chicken burritos, chicken BBQ, chicken bologna, chicken breast, chicken franks, cooked poultry,
cooked poultry rolls, corn chowder with chicken, poultry loaf, poultry patties, poultry rolls, frozen
poultry soups, turkey BBQ, turkey franks
Thermally Processed, Commercially Sterile Products
Canned spaghetti with meatballs, canned corned beef hash, canned ham, canned chicken salad,
canned soups with meat or poultry
a Majority of these products do not undergo any thermal process.
b Most of these products originated in Europe, and as processed in Europe, they do not receive any
heat treatment. However, the U.S. versions of many of these products receive a mild heat treatment.
by the heat treatment through coagulation (product binding), providing a homogeneous
product. Additionally, the denaturation/coagulation and reduced moisture
on the surface are responsible for the skin formation of some of these products.
6.3.1.2 Color Changes
Heat treatment of muscles causes color changes in the protein characterized by
a change from red to brown or gray in noncured products and stabilizes the
characteristic red/pink color in cured meats. Cured products do not change to
brown or gray as nitrite reacts with the muscle pigments to produce a stable pink