QUALITY PROPERTIES OF DRIED MEAT PRODUCTS

Drying is a complex process based on simultaneous removal of water from food by heat and mass transfer. Dried meat products are produced in various ways by using different meat sources such as cattle, pig, poultry and fish; functional additives such as spices, antioxidants and stabilizers; and production methods such as curing, smoking and drying. Past？rma, ham, jerky, pemmican, biltong, kaddid and cecina can be exemplified dried meat products obtained by these methods. However, some negative changes such as browning reactions, discoloration, lipid oxidation, intense and hard structure, reduction in dimension and lower rehydration ability may occur in meat products when drying process isn’t carried out under optimum conditions for factors, such as temperature and time. Furthermore, storage conditions also have a significant impact on quality of dried meat products. In this article, quality characteristics of dried meat products and effects of storage process on product quality have been compiled