Restructured Pork From Hot Processed Sow Meat: Effect of Mechanical Tenderization and Liquid Smoke

A 2 × 2 factorial design was used to study the effect of tenderization and liquid smoke on sensory and physical attribution of a fully cooked restructured pork item. The lean and fat mass was removed intact within 30 min postmortem from sow carcasses and assigned to a tenderized or non-tenderized treatment with and without liquid smoke. The four treatment groups were: non-tenderized, no liquid smoke (NTNS); non-tenderized with liquid smoke (NTS); tenderized, no liquid smoke (TNS); and tenderized with liquid smoke (TS). Mechanical tenderization was accomplished 1 h postmortem and the two original portions were subdivided for a 1% acid-neutralized liquid smoke treatment. Total processing time from exsanguination to a fully cooked product was 8 h. There were no differences (P>0.05) among any of the treatments for cohesiveness, juiciness, flavor or connective tissue scores or cooking loss. The TNS treatment had higher (P<0.06) tension values as determined by Instron measurements than the NTNS treatment. There were initially no practical differences between TBA values for fresh-frozen and cooked-frozen restructured pork. However, after 30 d of storage (-23°C), the cooked-frozen product had significantly higher TBA values than fresh-frozen product.