Manual on simple methods of meat 
             preservation 
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                                 M-25 
                            ISBN 92-5-102744-7 
              
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              FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS 
                               Rome, 1990 
                               © FAO 1990 
                                               
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                         Contents 
           Introduction
           1. Slaughtering and raw materials for meat preservation
           2. Simple techniques for production of dried meat
           3. Meat preservation by thermal treatment
           4. Impact of packaging methods on meat preservation
           5. Basic methods of quality control
           Table 1.   Pistola system, primal cuts expressed in percentage of cold carcass 
           weight
           Table 2.   F-values corresponding to various temperatures
           Table 3.   F-values in relation to temperature and time
           Table 4.   Decimal reduction rates during heat treatment
           Table 5.   Recommended thermal treatment for selected products
                        Illustrations 
           Figure 1   Simple wooden structure to hoist slaughter animal after bleeding
           Figure 2   Removal of skin from the hanging carcass
           Figure 3   Layout of the FAO small-scale modular slaughterhouse
           Figure 4   Beef carcass showing primal cuts according to pistola procedure
           Figure 5   Hindquarter (top) and forequarter (bottom) separated behind the last 
           rib. (Procedure recommended for meat for drying)
          Figure 6   Dehydration process of a piece of meat suspended under drying 
          conditions (schematic)
          Figure 7   Trimming a beef carcass
          Figure 8   Suspended anatomic cut from the hindquarters (“silverside”) (A) 
          and splitting into individual muscles (B) which result in (C)
          Figure 9   Cutting meat strips from the muscle on a chopping board
          Figure 10   Cutting meat strips from a suspended muscle
          Figure 11   Special cutting technique to obtain long meat strips
          Figure 12   Meat strips are soaked in a 14-percent salt solution for five minutes
          Figure 13   Draining the brine from the meat strips after soaking using a plastic 
          sieve
          Figure 14   Suspension of meat strips on hooks (A), loops (B) and by means of 
          clips (C)
          Figure 15   Preparing hooks from galvanized wire
          Figure 16   Preparing loops from string or thread and fixing the meat strips
          Figure 17   Simple wooden construction for meat drying using sticks (A) or 
          wire/plastic rope (B) to suspend the meat strips
          Figure 18   Simple metal construction for meat drying using sticks (A) or 
          wire/plastic rope (B) to suspend the meat strips
          Figure 19   Movable metal construction for meat drying
          Figure 20   Suspending meat strips on the lower level of the dryer on wooden 
          sticks by means of metal hooks
          Figure 21   Roofed meat dryer (corrugated aluminium)
          Figure 22   Protecting the sides of a meat dryer with an insect screen
          Figure 23   Arranging meat strips in the dryer along sticks or wires for 
          suspension
          Figure 24   Dried meat strips
          Figure 25   Properly dried meat with a smooth surface and uniform cross-
          section
          Figure 26   Dried meat strips packed in plastic bags with the opening heat 
          sealed (above) or tied (below)
          Figure 27   Dried meat in jute sacks for wholesale trade
          Figure 28   Whole strips and flat pieces of dried meat and dried meat 
          comminuted to fragments of different sizes for preparing meals
          Figure 29   Preparing a meal of dried meat. As a first step the dried meat is put 
          into boiling water
          Figure 30   Retort cooker
          Figure 31   Principles of can-seaming operation
          Figure 32   Vacuum chamber machine
          Figure 33   Electrical thermometer with digital display and two sensors, for 
          measuring air temperature (left) and the temperature of meat, liquids, etc. 
          (right)
          Figure 34   Electronic psychrometer (hygrometer) and sensor (right) for direct 
          measurement of the relative air humidity
          Figure 35   Mechanical instrument to prove airtight closure of cans
          Figure 36   Portable electric pH-meter with sensor (glass electrode)
          Figure 37   Trigger and sterile cellotape for microbiological sampling of the 
          meat surface
          Figure 38   Culture medium with various fields after incubation of different 
          samples taken using the technique shown in Fig.37
          Figure 39   Sampling microbial contamination on a defined surface area 
          marked by sterile template with sterile swabs
          Figure 40   Transfer of the sample taken with the swab on to the surface of the 
          culture medium.
          Figure 41   Bacterial colonies grown from one cell each on the culture medium 
          after the incubation period.