Meat Packaging PDF

MEAT PACKAGING DR NARENDRA NAYAK DEPARTMENT OF LPT COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SC. & A.H., MHOW  Food packaging is not only an art of enclosing or wrapping a food product but it also protects the food from deterioration in a limited manner.  It must ensure safe delivery of the product...

MEAT PACKAGING DR NARENDRA NAYAK DEPARTMENT OF LPT COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SC. & A.H., MHOW  Food packaging is not only an art of enclosing or wrapping a food product but it also protects the food from deterioration in a limited manner.  It must ensure safe delivery of the product at the minimum cost.  The cost of packaging has to be reasonable  Packaging may not improve the existing quality of a product but it should help in maintaining its keeping quality during storage, transport and deterioration  TYPES OF PACKAGING MATERIALS Depending on the hardness, the packaging materials are of three types : i) Flexible packaging materials : Plastic films, Paper, Aluminium foil ii) Semi-rigid packaging materials : Paperboard/cardboard/containers, PET and PVC containers, Aluminium containers, Moulded containers iii) Rigid packaging containers : Glass containers, Metal cans, Fibre board containers, Wooden boxes/crates/barrels  FLEXIBLE PACKAGING MATERIALS Plastic Films  A film is very thin flexible plastic sheeting. Cellophane  Was first commercial flexible film.  It is a natural plastic film derived from bleached pulp which is treated with acid and alkali and then plasticized to get cellophane.  It can be suitably coated on one side to impart various functional properties.  This is a low cost film.  Various types of this film bear letter designation on the basis of its properties e.g.  C - coloured  M - moisture proof  S - heat sealable  T - transparent  D - demi (one side) coated Thus, MST cellophane refers to a film which is moisture proof, heat sealable and transparent.  Polyethylene (PE)  It is the most commonly used plastic film of these days due to low cost, easy availability and unique properties  Low density polyethylene (LDPE) is prepared at a very high atmospheric pressure at about 150- 200°C, whereas high density polyethylene (HDPE) is prepared at comparatively low atmospheric pressure and temperature  Low density polyethylene (LDPE) film is transparent to translucent, highly flexible and has comparatively low permeability to water vapours, but it is fairly permeable to oxygen, carbon dioxide or odours  HDPE film is translucent to opaque and comparatively less permeable to water vapours and gases. It is fairly oil and grease resistant as compared to LDPE  Polyethylene is a tasteless, odourless and non-toxic film  It has the unique property of sealability of itself by the application of heat  Polypropylene (PP)  Is another plastic film which is also in general use.  It has a good gloss, high flex strength and resistance.  It softens at a temperature of 150°C, so it can be used to pack food products at moderately high temperature.  It is also sometimes used for packaging those raw meat products which are subjected to heat treatment or cooked in the pack itself at a later stage.  The film is readily heat sealable and has low water vapour permeability.  It also shows a good resistance to oil and grease. It is used in making laminates also.  Polyamide  Usually called Nylon film in the trade is inert, heat resistant and has excellent mechanical properties.  Nylon-6 is a tasteless and odourless film and thus ideal for use in the packaging of fresh and processed foods.  It can be sterilized by steam.  It is used for making laminates of good inertness and low permeability.  Polyester film  Is also inert and has excellent strength.  It is widely used in lamination as outer, abrasion resistance layer for food pouches Polyvinyl chloride  Is a plasticized film for packaging.  This film has low folding endurance.  It has good seal property and resistance to oil as well as grease.  Aluminium Foil  Plain aluminum foil is used for packaging food products.  Thin gauge aluminum foil with pin holes are generally laminated to paper or plastic film with bonding agent to make suitable laminates.  These laminates are used to package food products requiring protection against light, water vapour and gases especially dehydrated cooked meat.  One distinct advantage of using aluminium foil as the outer layer of a laminate is that it provides a very good base for colourful and decorative printing.  Paper Glassine or parchment paper  Have good grease resistance and high wet strength.  A plasticizer may be added to make the paper still more soft and machinable.  These opaque papers are sometimes used to wrapping bacon and other fatty cuts of meat. SEMI-RIGID PACKAGING MATERIALS Paper board  Sheets are cut, folded into desired form and glued.  Corners can be made stronger.  The material can be made as set up paper board boxes or folding carton or tray as per the demand.  It provides convenience, strength and good product protection.  PET (polyethylene terepthalate) and PVC plastic sheets  Can be moulded in shape, size and colour to suit specific product requirements.  PET bottles and containers are extremely clear, virtually unbreakable and very light weight.  They are ideal for the packaging of pickled meat products.  They provide enhanced visual appeal to the products.  Plain aluminium foil of higher guage  Either alone or in combination with paper or plastic foils can be pressure formed into desired shapes to serve as semi-rigid containers for various types of food products. Moulded pulp  Containers are the cheapest packaging for the shell eggs.  They allow wholesale trading of eggs along with the tray.  RIGID PACKAGING MATERIALS Glass containers  Are very old and versatile packages for food packaging.  It is chemically inert and is an excellent barrier to solids, liquids and gases.  It can be moulded in various shapes and sizes and also allows excellent product visibility.  Glass bottles are used for packaging meat pickles etc.  The main drawbacks of glass containers are the risk of breakage and comparatively heavy weight.  Metal cans  Are primarily used for commercially sterilized food products.  Iron sheet used for making can has very thin tin coating on either side.  It is generally applied to check rusting and corrosion of metal cans on long term storage.  To make the metal can more suitable for food application, a further very very thin coating of enamel or lacquer is applied to the tin.  For canning of meat products, a sulphur-resistant lacquer is preferred.  Can bodies are soldered or welded. The product is hermatically (air tight) sealed in the can.  RETAIL PACKAGING  In retail packaging, the size of the package is such that the food contents can suffice the requirement of an individual or a family.  It does not involve any packaging exercise at the retail store  Retail packaging of food products mostly involves the use of flexible packaging materials - plastic films, aluminum foil, paper etc. or their laminates  Sample food pouches are also subjected to drop test. In this test, the pouch is made to fall on a platform from a height of 105 cm at the bottom, by the corner sides and edges  BULK PACKAGING  Bulk or wholesale packaging is done for safe transport of a product from the point of production to wholesale dealer and from there to the retailer.  Bulk packaging should make an efficient use of transit space.  The packages should be easy to load or move from one place to the other at transit point either manually or by trolley.  They should be stackable one over the other to save the space during transit as well as storage.  Bulk packaging is done in rigid packaging materials.  Solid or corrugated cardboard boxes are extensively used for food products  These are not usually used as direct containers but employed as outer packages for a number of retail packages  THE FOLLOWING PERFORMANCE EVALUATION TESTS ARE CALLED OUT ON BULK PACKAGES : Drop Test:  This is most important test especially for fibre board or corrugated fibre board boxes, shipping containers etc.  The filled-in package is allowed to fall on the bottom by the corner sides and edges.  The fall should be atleast 60 cm.  Rolling Test:  Bulk packages may have to be rolled at certain points. Stack Load Test:  Bulk containers are tested for the load they can bear by stacking them one over the other upto a height of 2 meters.  The packages should not suffer any damage during this exercise.  Vibration Test:  It is conducted to test the bulk packages which are to be transported by train.  The packages are put on a vibration table which vibrates with the speed of 120 cycles/minute for a known time.  An hour of vibration on this table represents 1000 km transit by train.  All these tests are not done on all packages or containers.  ASEPTIC PACKAGING  Aseptic packaging refers to the process of packaging pre-sterilized food product in the pre- sterilized packages under sterile environment.  In this process, the product is sterilized by heating at a very high temperature (ultra high temperature) or at high temperature for a short time (HTST) or directly by steam injection.  There are various aseptic packaging systems which are successfully operating in different parts of the world.  In India, ‘Tetrapak’ system is being followed for the aseptic packaging of milk and fruit juices at several places  VACUUM PACKAGING  Colour is the most important characteristic of fresh meat from the marketing point of view  In cured meat also, cured meat colour is highly desired.  Long term storage of these meats in permeable plastic films will alter their colour to undesirable dark brown.  So these meats are stored for extended period in impermeable film laminates under vacuum.  It will ensure retention of meat quality for a period of at least 8 weeks in fresh meat and 10 weeks in case of cured meat at a refrigerated storage of 0°C  Vacuum packaging machine is used to create vacuum in the filled-in package.  The aerobic bacteria are inactivated.  The lipid oxidation and consequent rancidity development is checked  There is saving in the space during transport.  The laminate pouches should have a good mechanical strength and allow perfect seals  The polyethylene (PE) layer is invariably used on the inner side Some of the commonly used laminates are -  Polyester/PE film laminate  Polyamide/PE film laminate  Aluminium foil/PE laminate  PVDC/PE laminate  In the vacuum packaging, superficial spoilage of fresh meat caused mainly by Pseudomonas sp. is inhibited. However, lactic acid producing bacteria continue to grow at a slow pace for several weeks without immediately spoiling the meat.  MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE PACKAGING (MAP)  The gases and their proportion to be used in modifying the atmosphere inside the package is carefully selected for a particular type of meat product.  Nitrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen are the three most important gases.  Nitrogen is an inert gas and does not react with the various constituents of a meat product.  Oxygen is used when the development of a desirable colour becomes imperative.  Carbon dioxide is used to create anaerobic environment inside the package.  Modified atmosphere packaging is also done with the help of vacuum packaging machine as a second step  Inmodified atmosphere packaging, we do not disturb the package environment at a later stage.  PACKAGING OF FRESH MEAT  For short term storage, most learned people in India wrap fresh meat in polyethylene pouches or bag.  The polyethylene should be food grade, transparent and fairly thick (150-200 gauge).  In developed countries, fresh meat chunks are kept in a rigid plastic tray and overwrapped with polyethylene.  Besides this popular film can also use polyproplylene, polyvenylidine chloride or cellophane films for wrapping fresh meat cuts.  This is another type of film called shrink film which is used for wrapping large and uneven cuts of fresh meat and dressed poultry.  The carcass cuts or dressed poultry are first wrapped in shrink film which is then immersed in hot water (90°C) for a few seconds  For long term storage, vacuum packaging of fresh meat and storage in refrigerator is ideal.  Pork is usually not vacuum packaged because it has higher load of bacteria and keeps well for only 2 weeks.  The laminate for this packaging should have a good strength and proper sealing is necessary  The gaseous mixture in MAP differs for various species. For mutton, a mixture of 70% oxygen, 20% carbon dioxide and 10% nitrogen is generally used, whereas for pork, 70% carbon dioxide, 20% nitrogen and only 10% oxygen is recommended.  For dressed poultry a mixture of 50% carbon dioxide and 50% nitrogen is considered ideal  PACKAGING OF FROZEN MEAT  The meat to be stored in frozen condition must be properly packaged, otherwise it develops “freezer burn’  For frozen storage of meat, the packaging material should have good strength even at freezer temperature.  It should have very little permeability to water vapours  It should also have very good grease resistance.  Low density polyethylene (150-200 gauge) is the least cost protective film which can withstand low temperature and maintain clarity.  Polyester or nylon/ PE laminate can also serve as ideal over-wrap.  Heat shrinkable low density polyethylene also provides all the required functional properties for this purpose.  PACKAGING OF CURED MEAT  Cured meat products like ham, bacon, luncheon meat and frankfurters are prepared after treating meat with table salt (sodium chloride) and salt petre (sodium nitrite) along with other additives.  Curing develops a very desirable pink colour and a much sought after cured flavour  These two specific characteristics need to be protected in the packaging of cured meat products  The packaging techniques for short term storage are overwrapping in polyethylene or shrink packaging for irregular cuts like hams.  For long term storage of blocks, luncheon meat etc., vacuum packaging in laminates is ideal.  Modified atmosphere packaging in gaseous mixture of 85-90% nitrogen and 10-15% carbon dioxide also keeps the cured meat well for about 12 weeks at 0- 4°C.MAP  PACKAGING OF COOKED MEAT PRODUCTS  Most meat products like meat patties, sausages, nuggets, meat balls etc. are cooked to an internal temperature of 75°C to kill most of the microorganisms  These meat products can be packaged in pouches of polyethylene, polypropylene, PVDC(polyvinylidene chloride) etc. for short term storage lasting 10-12 days in a refrigerator (0-4°C)  Cooking in hermetically (air tight) sealed metal cans makes the products commercially sterile.  These canned products are shelf stable at ambient temperature for a period of 2 years  Retort pouches are also available in some markets.  PACKAGING OF DEHYDRATED MEAT  All the dried meat products are susceptible to ingress of moisture and rancidity development.  So, the packaging material should not allow any moisture or oxygen inside the product.  Aluminium foil/polyethylene laminate is ideally suited for this purpose.  If nitrogen is also filled in the package of a crisp product, it will protect the product against breakage by providing cushioning from all the sides.