Advancing technology helps processors to form an even better opinion of forming
About 40 years ago, forming was pretty much a brute force segment of the industry, laments one insider.
"Nothing was very sophisticated," he adds. "It was 'bigger motors,' and electronics were very simple."
Computerization has since revolutionized the entire meat industry, including the forming equipment/systems segment.
"You're seeing more PLC-controlled equipment that can give readouts in your functions or control with program logic, as opposed to hydraulics and/or pneumatics," says a forming equipment product manager. "This equipment gives you a little quicker cycle times, noise levels are reduced, and you get better readouts. If you want, you can even hook up to a lap-top computer to get production reports out on a more timely basis.
"Now that gas flush and vacuum packaging machines are available, we can take a piece of our [forming] equipment and form directly into vacuum packaging equipment," he adds. "Packers can use such systems to upgrade some of their products for the retail trade. Pattie products in Europe, for example, are formed directly into, say, a Styrofoam tray and overwrapped. "
Breaking the mold
Meat processors should look beyond producing traditional, commodity-type, formed meat products and add value through innovation in new product development.
"Don't let the perception of a formed meat product from 10 years ago [nuggets and patties] prevent you from pursuing what a formed meat product could be like," says a spokesman from one forming equipment manufacturing company. "There are many possibilities, such as dough-enrobed products or skinless link products or uniquely shaped products.
"There are many things we [forming equipment/systems manufacturers] can do for processors-if they include us early on in the product development stages," he adds.
Two types of companies basically utilize meat forming equipment, explains one forming expert.
"One does nothing but forming," he adds. "They do nothing but produce hamburger patties or portion-controlled forming. The other cuts steaks. They generate trim from the steak and use that trim to form hamburger patties.
"This second type of company can also produce No. 2 products like hoagies or a Philadelphia steak-type product-products that are perceived as whole-muscle products and that sell at a higher price than hamburger patties," he adds.
Hamburger patties are mostly made from linear slide plate pattie formers, says the forming expert. And some companies utilize coextrusion, which is usually done through stuffers. There are advantages to both processes.
"In coextrusion, you can use different types of materials," he adds. "This market, however, isn't very big yet. Its drawback is portion weight control is lost. Linear slide plate machines, however, fill into a fixed volumetric area so portion weight control is accurate. Our company can guarantee portion weight control to be plus or minus one-half of 1 percent."
Products such as "fake steaks" (products made by forming small pieces of meat to resemble a whole-muscle product) have been made for some time now by stuffer/press types of systems. Some sources call this traditional process expensive.
"It's expensive because it takes a couple of days to do it," states a forming machinery company spokesman. "First, you have to take pieces of meat, stuff them into a casing, freeze them and then cleaver them. The freezing process alone takes 12 to 14 hours. And when you cleaver like this, portion weight control is thrown out the window. You'll have variances-maybe 3 to 5 percent.
"That [process] has been somewhat refined," he adds. "Now we take the unfrozen raw product, utilize tumbling and binders such as carrageenan, and bind the pieces; forming them into whatever shape you wish."
Some forming companies have equipment and molds to make three-dimensional products. One source, whose company makes such machinery, says his firm's process is much faster than the traditional method.
"Tumbling might take five to 10 minutes," he explains. "In forming, we can produce material at the rate of 4,000 pounds an hour. Freezing might take another 20 minutes. Within one hour, you can go from pieces to a pre-formed steak or chicken fillet."
One Canadian supplier recently introduced a binding system that takes small pieces of commodity meat to form further-value added meat products that resemble whole-muscle cuts. This system is also faster than the traditional manufacturing process, but a plant that is crucial to supplying the necessary ingredients for this process won't be up and running until later this year. Supply will be limited until that time.
Several sources point to an increase in forming whole-muscle meat.
"More meat companies are using whole-muscle meat instead of ground or chopped meat for formed products because it gives you a better bite," says one forming expert. "It's more expensive, but it's perceived to be a more valuable product to the consumer...who's willing to pay a little more for that product."
During the past few years, more consumers have been looking for higher-priced, value-added formed meat products as opposed to the traditional, commodity-type formed products such as nuggets and patties.
"During our last recession, there was a trend toward more value products. There was some resistance from consumers in paying for higher-priced products. We're seeing a stronger interest in forming higher value-added products," says one forming equipment source.
In terms of "hot" formed meat products, interest in formed, rolled and fully cooked meat balls for food bars is growing, says another source.
"We also have interest in a satŽ [meat on a stick] product. A stick is inserted into the formed, whole-muscle meat to primarily serve the export market, but it's also gaining interest in the domestic market," he adds.
The future of forming
Several forming machinery company spokesmen told MM&T that there really hasn't been any earth-shattering technology in meat forming during the past two years. When asked about future opportunities in forming, one forming expert says the meat industry will experience minute but very substantial changes.
"A small change, say a 10 percent decrease in cooking time that could be as little as five seconds on a grill, could be monumental for restaurants that turn hundreds or thousands of patties a day. They could push so many more sandwiches through."
Looking to the future, the spokesman adds that forming equipment that could handle a variety of changes in raw material and still put out a consistent product would be a gold mine for its developer.
"This may be wishing for too much," he chuckles. "It may be impossible."
What will remain key to portioning and forming is consistency.
"Batching and forming equipment must be consistent and reliable," he adds. "Control of the raw product going through the system needs to be consistent. If you can get this consistency, your business will be successful."
Forming technology being used to create innovative fish or poultry products may someday be used for meat products.
"There is no end to the shapes and types of products we could produce," claims one forming expert.
"We feel very strongly that chicken nuggets and patties will someday be produced using a whole-muscle process; a process that doesn't require grinding or comminuting, scoring and shaping the product like you do now," he adds. "We also feel that in red meats, there's going to be an increase in re-use of high-quality trim to produce inexpensive meat portions, such as Salisbury steaks."
One packaging company spokesman told MM&T that the industry can expect more automation in forming equipment/systems.
"When you're forming and cooking, there's still an awful lot of hand labor being used," he adds. "The last remaining controllable critical control points are where people still place their hands on product. In the next 5 to 10 years, I see automated systems that will greatly reduce the need for hand labor-particularly if the HACCP [Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Point] concept is adopted and utilized industry-wide."