Low-temperature osmotic dehydration improves the quality of intermediate moisture meats

Dehydration of meat at low temperature (4°C) with a new dehydrating sheet to obtain intermediate moisture meat produced more desirable results than did more rapid dehydration at 25°C, because the native state of meat proteins was better retained at the lower temperature. At low temperature with replacement of the dehydrating sheet once per day, the water content decreased to 57% after 150 h. Water activity (a(w)) dropped to 0·965. Myofibrils could be prepared readily from meat after 150 h at 4°C, and the myofibrils were induced to contract by addition of Mg(2+)-ATP solution and therefore retained biological activity. Electron microscopic observation showed that intermediate moisture meat prepared at 4°C retained the original muscle structure to a large extent. Myosin could be extracted easily from intermediate moisture meat dehydrated at 4°C after 10 days of storage at 25°C. No marked difference in the effect of dehydration on muscle was observed among species (beef, pork, chicken and rabbit). Results show that dehydration at low temperature (4°C) with use of the new dehydrating sheet enables intermediate moisture meat of good quality to be manufactured.