Online quality assessment of processed meats

Introduction

What is in processed meat: Processed meat includes products ranging from those with a minimum of 30% meat, to products that comprise 100% meat. Processing can be defined as preparation of meats for value-added products. This can include portioning, forming and processing procedures such as emulsification, salting, curing, marinating, cooking, smoking or drying.

In terms of quality assessment and process optimisation, it is imperative that the quality of the ingredients used, the production process itself and the final products are carefully monitored. This includes evaluating the fat, water and protein content, pH and colour of the meat, parameters such as temperature, colour, salt content and water content during the process and finally, the colour, form, defects and packaging quality of the final product. Integration of this information is both critical and challenging when striving for full process automation and standardisation.

This chapter discusses some quality parameters that are typically measured in the processed meat industry and the various online techniques that are currently deployed or being investigated. There is also a discussion on future trends and challenges in terms of applications and technological development.

What you need to know (What is in processed meat)

What falls into the category of processed meat? You may be surprised. Any meat that has been preserved by smoking, curing or salting is processed. And meats with added chemical preservatives are also processed.

Some processed meats include:

• Ham
• Sausage
• Hot dogs
• Pepperoni
• Beef jerky
• Deli meats, including roast beef and turkey

What Is Processed Meat?

There’s no clear definition — it’s more of a description — but if you smoke it, salt it, cure it, or add preservatives to it, it’s probably processed. Limit how much processed meat you eat to reduce salt, fat, and preservatives  in your diet. 

Bacon

The fat in bacon is no secret — it splatters away right there in the pan when you cook it. But not all bacon is the same. Look for brands lower in salt and nitrates — some use none at all — and go with leaner cuts.

Cold Cuts

Hunks of beef, ham, and turkey are preserved with various amounts of salt, seasonings, sugar, and sometimes chemicals, and sliced for sandwiches or snacks. Check the ingredients — some cold cuts may not be as bad for you as others.

 

Hot Dogs

These processed tubes of meat are a staple at baseball games and neighborhood cookouts. Some brands use more … er … parts of the animal than others, but most of them are still loaded with salt, saturated fat, and nitrates.

Fast Food Chicken Nuggets

They’re easy to pop in your mouth, but they’re processed. There’s chicken meat in them, along with bones, blood vessels, nerves, connective tissue, fat, and skin (although Chick-fil-A says its nuggets are made of boneless chicken breast) . If you buy your own chicken and bake it in bite-size chunks, you can leave out the stuff you’d rather not think about, let alone eat.

Beef Jerky

It’s the perfect traveling meat snack: dried, salted meat you can put in your pocket. Quality makes a difference here: Cheaper, mass-produced beef jerky can have added sugar along with the fat and salt. But high-quality beef jerky is still processed meat, so don’t overdo it.

Pepperoni

It’s a favorite topping for pizza, but it’s part of a family of processed meats — fermented sausages — that have all the usual suspects: salt, fat, calories, sugar, and preservatives. To ferment a sausage, you let the raw meat cure in its casing, which gives it that tangy flavor and chewy texture.

Breakfast Sausage

If it comes in a package, glistens like it’s been dropped in a vat of oil, and tastes like a salt lick, it’s probably not that good for you. It sure looks tasty next to those eggs, though. If you’ve gotta have it, check the ingredients for lower amounts of salt and preservatives. You also can try turkey, chicken, or even vegetarian sausage for less fatty alternatives.

Pancetta

This is pork belly that’s been preserved with salt. Unlike bacon, it’s not smoked as part of the curing process, and that’s a plus because smoked meat has been linked to some kinds of cancer. It’s found mostly at specialty delis and usually has fewer preservatives. But it’s still full of fat, calories, and, of course, salt, so make it a rare treat.

Fast Food Hamburgers

The ground beef fast food restaurants use in their hamburgers often has growth hormones and antibiotics to go along with all the salt, fat, and preservatives. It’s a better idea to make your burgers at home with good-quality lean beef or ground turkey.

Deviled Ham

You can make it in a food processor at home — with some cooked ham, mustard, mayo, hot sauce, and onions. That’s better for you than the stuff that comes in cans at the supermarket. It often has too much salt and preservatives like sodium nitrate — a chemical that in larger quantities may make you more likely to have heart disease or diabetes.

Vienna Sausages

It may be different in Austria, but in America, these are tiny sausages in a can. They’re made from “mechanically separated chicken” — meaning the bones are taken out with a machine, and all the rest of the animal is used — along with small amounts of pork or beef. It’s all ground to a fine paste and cooked in little hot dog casings, ready to eat when you pop the top.

Canned Corned Beef Hash

Fry some chopped corned beef (typically brisket that’s been salted and cured) with some onions and potatoes, and you’ve got corned beef hash. Put it in a can and you have an inexpensive meat product loaded with fat, preservatives, and salt. For a healthier take, make your own version with turkey pastrami.

Eating Processed Meat is Associated with an Unhealthy Lifestyle

Processed meat has consistently been linked with harmful effects on health.

This is a fact that health-conscious people have been aware of for decades.

For this reason, eating high amounts of processed meat is more common among people with unhealthy lifestyle habits.

As an example, smoking is more common among those who eat lots of processed meat. Their intake of fruit and vegetables is also much lower (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source).

It is possible that the links found between processed meat and disease are partly because people who eat processed meat tend to do other things that are not associated with good health.

Most observational studies on processed meat and health outcomes try to correct for these factors.

Nevertheless, studies consistently find strong links between processed meat consumption and various chronic diseases.

2. Is there any risk for eating processed white meats, like turkey and chicken?

Unfortunately, we just don’t know. “Many studies don’t differentiate between red and white meat consumption in the subjects, so there are still unanswered questions,” Doyle explains.

3. Are meats labeled nitrate-free, no nitrates or no nitrates added any safer?

When it comes to processed meats, consumers are often concerned with added, synthetic nitrates, which are used to preserve the meats and keep them fresher, longer. If you’re concerned about additives, these more natural-sounding meats might seem appealing. But there’s a catch. Doyle explains that these natural meats (including chicken and turkey) are still processed, and they’re still made with nitrates. “They use natural sources of preservatives,” she says. “Many companies are using celery powder, celery juice or celery salt, which are high in nitrates. They can still label their product ‘nitrate-free’, because those are natural and not synthetic, but they are nitrates nonetheless.” In other words, once you ingest deli turkey or chicken or ham made with celery powder or another natural preservative, you’re still consuming nitrates — it’s just in a different form. “Unfortunately, we just don’t know yet whether these have the same impact as synthetic sources of nitrates.”

Alternatives to processed meat

It used to be that tofu was the only meat replacement you could count on seeing at restaurants or in grocery stores. As versatile and healthy as tofu can be, incredible innovations have created options that closely mimic processed meat. Plant-based meats like these can help satisfy cravings while taking animal cruelty out of the equation.

• Lightlife makes vegan bacon that you can grill up in the comfort of your home
• Beyond Meat makes sausages and hamburgers that taste essentially identical to the real thing, using pea protein and other plant-based ingredients
• Louisville Vegan Jerky Co. makes vegan jerky in a variety of flavors
• Good Catch makes vegan fish fillets, crab cakes, and tuna
• Quorn makes hamburger patties and other products using mushrooms for authentic meaty textures

Any of these options offer a kinder solution to processed meats, putting robust and healthy flavors on your plate while leaving suffering and cruelty off the menu.

Processed meats are a regular part of the average American diet. Whether in sandwiches, on pizzas, in salads or even added to vegetable sides, processed meat consumption has remained steady over the past 18 years, according to a 2019 study. Meanwhile, unprocessed beef consumption has declined. But eating processed meats can come with a side of negative health consequences — evidence links regular and high levels of consumption with increased disease risk. 

What Are Four Examples of Processed Meat?

Processed meats can be found almost everywhere food is served or sold. Restaurants use them in their dishes and grocery stores stock their freezer and refrigerator aisles full of sliced deli meats and frozen chicken tenders. Food stalls at sports events and stadiums feature processed meats like burgers and hot dogs.

Bacon

Bacon shot to popularity after many years of being a simple breakfast side dish and the “B” on a “BLT.” Some refer to the processed meat’s upward trajectory as “bacon mania.” As recently as the early 1990s, low-fat frenzied consumers avoided eating bacon due to the meat’s high fat content. But today, images of the fatty processed pork can be found adorning t-shirts and mugs, shaped into pillows and on all other manner of trinkets. This processed meat features heavily on the menus of restaurants at every price point and is considered a staple in many households. 

Hot Dogs

A cherished favorite of many sports fans, hot dogs are practically synonymous with games and other live competitions. Cities and countries around the world have come up with creative preparations and toppings to make the dish uniquely their own. Still, 30 percent of the average hot dog is fat, with water accounting for another 20 percent of the link. The meat that does go into hot dogs is what is left over once an animal carcass has been butchered. Producers will use the less desirable parts of the animal and grind them down into a batter to be formed into hot dogs, oftentimes including bits of the animal’s bones. 

Chicken Nuggets

Chicken nuggets are favored as a convenient and easy option that can be heated up quickly in a microwave or grabbed from a drive-thru window. But most chicken nuggets contain very little actual chicken meat and are instead made up primarily of fat, nerves, bone, skin and connective tissue. As is the case with all processed meats, chicken nuggets also contain a wide array of additives to enhance the flavor, texture and shelf life of the breaded bites. Common additives include emulsifiers and thickening agents, cornstarch, dextrose, whey and propylene glycol.  

Deli Meats

Cold cut sandwiches consisting of ham or turkey between two slices of white bread, slathered with mayonnaise and a halfhearted leaf of lettuce, have long been a centerpiece of childhood lunchboxes. Yet deli meats are not as straightforward as they seem. Many offerings contain binders, byproducts or extenders, which could include pig snouts and livers, beef blood and gelatin. 

What Is in Processed Meat?

Heterocyclic Amines (HCAs)

The National Institute of Health defines heterocyclic amines as chemicals that form when you cook meat at high temperatures, in particular from heating the amino acids, creatine or creatinine, and sugars. HCAs are only found in meats that have been heated to temperatures above 300 degrees, as is the case with processed meats. Evidence suggests that HCAs are “mutagenic,” which means they are capable of causing changes to DNA that may result in an increased risk of cancer. 

Nitrite, N-Nitroso Compounds and Nitrosamines

Nitrites and nitrates are often added to processed meats to add smoky flavor and extend their shelf life. However, they also open up the possibility of the formation of N-nitroso compounds within the meat product. N-nitroso compounds are known carcinogens, which means they are recognized as increasing the likelihood of developing cancer. There are several factors that influence whether or not N-nitroso compounds will form in processed meats, including the quantity of nitrites and nitrates added, and the heating, storage and packaging of these products. 

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons also form when meat is heated. Unlike HCAs, the temperature at which the meat is prepared is less indicative of whether PAHs will form than the preparation method itself. PAHs are more likely to form when meat is being cooked directly over a hot surface that allows for fluids from the cooking meat to drip into the heat creating smoke. The resulting smoke contains PAHs that adhere to the surface of the meat. PAHs can also be found on meats that have been prepared using smokers. Like HCAs, PAHs are mutagenic, causing changes to DNA, and have also been found to cause cancer in animals. 

Sodium Chloride

Sodium chloride, otherwise known as salt, is viewed as an essential additive for meat processing, as it lengthens shelf life by helping to preserve the meat and creates a more enjoyable flavor. The amount of salt added to a processed meat varies based on the product, but some salamis have been recorded as having 4.6 grams of salt added for every 100 grams of salami. Though salt in moderation plays an important role in managing blood pressure in the body, overconsumption can lead to hypertension, strokes and cardiovascular disease. 

Is Processed Meat Bad for You?

Processed Meat and Cancer

Since 2015 the World Health Organization (WHO) has categorized processed meats as carcinogenic to humans. This means that there is sufficient evidence that the consumption of processed meats causes cancer. The strongest body of evidence links the consumption of processed meats with the development of colorectal cancer, or cancer of the colon or rectum. WHO experts concluded that the risk of colorectal cancer increases by 18 percent with each 50-gram portion of processed meat eaten per day. Evidence also suggests that consumption of processed meats may be related to stomach cancer but is not conclusive.  

Processed Meat and Chronic Disease

There is a wealth of evidence linking processed meats with the development of chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In fact, eating more unprocessed plant-based foods instead of processed meats is linked with lower total and LDL cholesterol levels. 

Are Some Processed Meats Worse for You Than Others?

Determining whether there are some processed meats that are worse than others is a difficult question, as most research in this area lumps all processed meats together and does not differentiate between hot dogs and chicken nuggets, for example. Though you might think that eating processed chicken and fish products would be better for you than eating processed red meats, this is not necessarily the case. Many of the downsides of consuming processed meats are derived from the processing itself and the addition of preservatives and other substances, rather than the original animal product and its nutritional qualities. 

How Much Processed Meat Is Safe To Eat?

Health researchers recommend you minimize one’s consumption of processed meats as much as possible, as the health impacts of just a small amount in one’s regular diet can be massive. For example, consuming just 50 grams (or about one-tenth of a pound) a day increases the risk of developing colorectal cancer by 18 percent. 

Have You Been Eating Processed Meat Without Realizing It?

Processed meats can be difficult to avoid. Bacon bits on top of a cobb salad or in a side of collard greens, deli meats on a sub sandwich and pepperoni on pizza are all examples of processed meats that many of us wouldn’t think twice about consuming. Though these foods may seem innocuous enough, the meats they contain are processed. 

Pros of Eating Red Meat

Many benefits come with eating red meat in moderation. Meat is a good source of protein of both quantity and quality. Our bodies need some source of protein to get the right nutrients and energy. Pro

tein is one of the main sources to have a normal balanced diet. More benefits associated with the consumption of red meat are:

• Essential amino acids, which are biologically important compounds that our bodies don’t self-produce. We can find amino acids in meats, dairy products and legumes.
• Vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin B12 which is essential to in maintain the bodies healthy red blood cells, nerve cells and proteins.
• Iron also helps maintain healthy red blood cells.
• Zinc helps aid digestion and keeps our body’s immune system healthy.
• Phosphorous maintains bone health.

Cons to Eating Red Meats

The downside to eating red meats are those related to the amount of fat, cholesterol, and sodium content. These risk factors bring an increase rise in heart disease, such as heart attacks and clogged arteries.

• High sodium content in red meats can lead to high blood pressure. High blood pressure is a condition where long-term force of blood against artery walls is forceful enough to cause heart disease. There is also an increased risk of stroke, a stroke is when blood flow to a part of the brain stops. Lastly heart failure, which is the hearts inability to properly pump an adequate supply of blood throughout the body.
• Processed meats are said to put people at risk for many different types of gastrointestinal cancers as well as heart disease. (What is in processed meat)