Late last year, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 — jointly published by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services — decisively told Americans to limit foods and beverages higher in four areas: sodium, added sugars, saturated fat and alcohol.
A lot of work goes into a “clean label,” particularly with marinated proteins. To achieve the ever-popular clean label, processors have had to re-think more than marinades’ ingredient composition, functionality and chemical reactions, but also improve natural sanitation, injection equipment and filtering technology.
Enhancing the meat-eating experience and improving overall value of meat products has been a longtime goal for processors. There have been some incredible advancements in the ingredients that improve texture, binding and water-holding capacity.
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Ingredient technology to produce clean-label products that meet quality expectations is leading development in gums, binders and other emulsifiers. Additionally, use of gums, binders and emulsifiers to make plant-protein-based meat analogs more similar to meat products continues to progress, says Wes Schilling, professor of food science at Mississippi State University.
The three major functional ingredients areas — salt, sodium nitrate and lactates such as sodium lactates and sodium diacetate — have the biggest impact on food safety, shelf life and product quality.
Driven by consumer preference for natural or clean-label products, shelf-life-extending ingredients that are growing continue to be natural or clean-label ingredients.
Salt contributes much to meat products — flavor, water-holding capacity and food safety. The top challenge for meat and poultry processors is that sodium comes primarily from the sodium chloride in brines, marinades and seasonings along with the leavening agents in batters and breadings and the sodium bicarbonate in bread crumbs.