Organogels use in meat processing - Effects of fat/oil type and heating rate

The effects of fat/oil type (regular and rendered beef fat, canola, soy and flaxseed oils), form (native or organogel), and heating rate (0.7 and 3.5 °C/min) were investigated in a comminuted meat system. Converting beef fat to organogel resulted in higher hardness values of the cooked meat products, but the opposite was observed with the vegetable oils. Springiness was lower for all organogels compared to the native fat/oil used. Fat globule size was larger in the organogels prepared from vegetable oils compared to the native oils, but that was not the case for beef fat. Increasing heating rate reduced cooking loss, and while employing organogels did not affect the regular beef fat, it significantly increases losses from the vegetable oil treatments. Overall, using the organogel technology should be attractive to processors and consumers alike as products with high unsaturated fatty acids can be produced.