Molded meat

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Formed meat (in the media also analogue ham or glued meat ) is a meat product that is composed of smaller pieces of meat - usually pork or poultry . In this way, after slaughtering and cutting the animal , smaller pieces of meat can be used not only for sausage or minced meat , but also like larger, grown pieces of meat. Form meat is used for boiled ham , schnitzel , chicken nuggets and the like, especially in ready meals and in gastronomy. In terms of composition, formed meat does not differ from grown meat, apart from the possible addition of salt and spices.

Manufacturing

For production, the chunks of meat are first tumbled , i.e. machine-milled, which loosens the bond between the muscle fibers , causes muscle abrasion and protein escapes on the surface. This can be supported by adding salt or curing salt and enzymes such as transglutaminase . In Germany, the resulting sausage-like mass must not exceed five percent by volume of the total amount (ten percent for poultry). After tumbling, the mass is pressed into molds and either frozen or heated so that the released protein coagulates and connects the chunks into one piece. Depending on the intended use, spices and flavorings are added or the shaped parts are breaded .

criticism

In the 1980s, molded meat, which was becoming increasingly widespread at the time, came under fire because it could mislead the consumer - at that time there was no clear labeling requirement. Today, according to No. 2.19 of the Guidelines for Meat and Meat Products of the German Foodstuffs Book Form meat products must be identified by a prefixed “Formfleisch-” and an explanation afterwards, e.g. B. "Formed meat ham, assembled from pieces of meat". But according to Paragraph 4 of No. 2.19 i. V. m. 2.341.6, this marking can be omitted if the items would also be "marketable in isolation under the corresponding sales description". An isolated marketability is given if at least 80% parts with a weight of more than 250 g are present in the blank during the manufacturing process.

Since most formed meat products meet this standard, you will almost never see such a label on products with “sticky meat” content.

In a test of chicken nuggets made from molded meat by the Austrian newspaper Konsument in September 2011, four out of eight samples were classified as a “frying, frothy, starchy mass with muscle fibers, grown skeletal muscles, connective tissue, spices, and sometimes poultry skin”.

Imitations

According to the German guidelines, molded meat may only consist of meat, possibly also salt, curing salt and spices. However, the production method also allows stretching with additives. Ice can be added to the mass, especially if it consists of very small pieces of meat and fibers - the water is bound like in sausage production. The water absorption can be increased by adding starch , protein, e.g. B. from milk, blood plasma, soy or wheat, and gelling agents . As a rule, it also contains spices and flavorings . Such products can contain up to 40 percent added water, and the meat content does not have to be significantly higher. In the case of imported boiled ham substitutes produced in this way , the average meat content fell from 83 to 57 percent between 1993 and 2008. Products stretched in this way have a consistency similar to boiled sausage and predominantly contain only very small pieces of meat.

These products, also called aliud ( Latin for “another”), may not be marketed as molded meat in Germany, and they often do not meet the requirements for boiled sausage. A valid sales description does not yet exist, similar to that for artificial cheese .

In an investigation by the Hessian Ministry of Consumer Protection from 2006 to 2009 in gastronomic establishments with around 500 samples, 68 percent of establishments used such imitations instead of the cooked ham, molded meat (front) ham or “pizza ham” indicated on the menu. The term “pizza ham”, which is common for such products, is also not permitted in Germany.

Raw ham

Raw ham usually consists of overgrown fat and meat. Hardly distinguishable for the layman, raw ham can also be glued together from individual pieces using the enzyme transglutaminase . There was initially no obligation to inform. Since the Food Information Regulation came into force on December 13, 2014

"Meat products, meat preparations and fishery products which might appear to be a grown piece of meat or fish, but which are in fact made up of different pieces put together by other ingredients, including food additives and enzymes, or by other means"

the words "put together from pieces of meat" or "put together from pieces of fish".

similar products

Web links

swell

  1. Half pre-chewed . In: Der Spiegel . No. 7 , 1984 ( online - Feb. 13, 1984 ).
  2. http://www.lgl.bayern.de/lebensmittel/warengruppen/wc_07_fleischerzeugnisse/et_muskelfaserststruktur_kochschinken.htm
  3. Chicken nuggets: Often made from inferior meat and widely traveled derStandard.at, 25 August 2011.
  4. ^ A b Doris Kugler: "Ham" in the catering Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety, February 24, 2012.
  5. ↑ Restaurant owners deceive customers with imitation ham from starch gel Spiegel Online from July 3, 2009.
  6. ^ Transglutaminase glue .
  7. ^ A pound of salmon ham, glued to Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 13, 2010.
  8. Fraud on the customer with molded meat? ( Memento from August 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) NDR, April 12, 2010.
  9. Review: Meat scandal in Germany ( Memento from November 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) ARD plusminus, April 13, 2010.
  10. ^ "Glue meat" in the food industry, Federal Association of Consumer Organizations, April 13, 2010.
  11. Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of October 25, 2011 on consumer information about food .