The top challenge of forming quality processed meat products is temperature. For example, for a company like Schweid & Sons, in Carlstadt, N.J., when it’s using all fresh whole-muscle meat, it uses nitrogen chilling or CO2 chilling to reduce the temperature of the meat down to about 29 to 31 degrees when the product exits the mixer grinder. The meat is then immediately formed and packaged airtight to maintain the longest shelf life possible and to eliminate bacteria growth in the product.
“When you have meat that is too warm, when it goes into a forming machine or any type of forming equipment, what happens is you get a patty with a tenderness level that is very mushy, and, in many cases, you don’t get a really uniform patty,” says Jamie Schweid, president and CEO of Schweid & Sons. “The reason is, when you’re filling the forming plate with meat that is a little warmer than normal, outside of the critical control points, because it’s not firm it has trouble filling the forming plate and causes a product that probably isn’t performing at its highest standard.”