Equipment is refined as further processing grows
by David R. Stone
Value added. That phrase explains many meat processors' renewed interested in cooking and smoking equipment.
It works like this: Processors have noticed demographic changes in the United States-more single-parent and two-paycheck households with little time to cook.
This means increased demand for-and profit in-prepared meats, giving processors an incentive to do more further processing before shipping their products to retail outlets.
This leads to a proliferation of ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat products, including fully cooked or smoked meats, sometimes with seasonings, coating or stuffing added.
This may result in longer cook times-or a search for improved equipment that offers improved production capacity.
At the same time, processors continue to seek tight controls for quality assurance, improved yields and faster production times.
Seeking refinements
All this has led to a number of refinements in cooking and smoking equipment, according to manufacturers, although the underlying technology has actually been around for several years.
Convection and impingement ovens control both air flow and temperature. A number of continuous cookers also offer both, giving the operator maximum control.
Because of the trend toward more further processing, equipment manufacturers have seen a number of meat companies move toward larger ovens.
Because this can cause a problem in plants with limited floor space, some manufacturers are introducing versions with spiral conveyors.
Many ovens also allow the processor to control humidity within the cooking chamber by adding precise amounts of steam, increasing product yield and cooking time.
Counter trend
At the same time, there is a counter trend as meat processors seek a decreased yield for at least one application.
As the pizza market continues to expand, many processors are cooking pizza toppings as high as 550 F.
This causes the product to lose fat (which drains away when the conveyor is a fine mesh belt), enhancing its quality as a pizza topping.
The high temperature has another benefit, as well: It speeds the cooking, which allows the operator to increase production capacity without investing in a larger piece of equipment.
Some processors are using convection or impingement cooking as a separate step after the meat has been cooked.
In this use, the final cooking is for browning or smoking the product, offering precise control over its color.
One manufacturer, for example, said its convection oven can brown most types of cooked meat in about 7 minutes.
The uniform heat provides uniform color, which is especially important for processors who use liquid smoke.
Liquid smoke
While many processors continue to smoke their meats in the traditional way-burning their own sawdust-there seems to be a trend toward liquid smoke.
One of the reasons, suggested Janet Riley, AMI public relations director, is tighter environmental controls that smokehouses must contend with in today's world.
One maker of liquid smoke said many processors continue to use their own smokehouses, but with atomized liquid smoke rather than smoke from burning sawdust. Because liquid smoke is cleaner, the life of the smokehouse is extended, he pointed out.
For some products, however, liquid smoke is applied earlier, either by drenching the product or by adding the liquid smoke to the product internally-including it in the brine on a ham or bacon, or mixing it into emulsion for sausage products.
This manufacturer pointed out that liquid smoke is available in many varieties, such as spray-dried onto dry ingredients. This broadens the range of smoked products that can be produced.