Influence of processing on adherence of a highly extended ham to its cooking bag

Highly extended cook-in-the-bag hams (65% brine/meat), representative of the products currently manufactured in Canada for mass distribution, were prepared using standard industrial equipment. Adherence between the cooked product and its packaging film was evaluated by measuring the force required to peel an excised band of film from the product surface. Overall, film-product adherence did not change after two weeks of refrigerated storage and was not affected by the extent of tumbling (from 360 to 4500 total turns) or by the cooking cycle (constant temperature of 74 °C, constant temperature of 84 °C, or stepwise temperature increase, until core temperature reaches 69 °C). Adherence was considerably reduced, however, when the extended muscles were finely homogenized prior to stuffing. A more detailed analysis of the results suggested that the occasional lack of proper film-product adherence observed in industry during the manufacture of highly extended hams cannot be due to mere deviations from the regular tumbling or cooking cycles. In addition, results point to the necessity of seeking alternative methods to quantify adherence between meat products and their cooking bags.