Meat products refers to cooked meat products or semi-finished products made with livestock and poultry meat as the main raw materials, such as sausage, ham, bacon, sauce meat, barbecue meat, etc. That is to say, all the meat with poultry meat as the main raw materials, all the meat products with added seasonings, do not vary according to the processing technology, are called meat products, including: sausage, ham, bacon, sauce gravy meat, barbecue meat, meat jerky, meat balls, prepared meat skewers, meat pies, preserved meat, crystal meat, etc. These diverse meat products were showcased at the Shanghai Food Expo, providing visitors with the opportunity to deeply understand and taste various types of meat products.

1.Meat product classification
 

High temperature meat products: 115-120℃ heating to a central temperature greater than 115℃, commercial sterile, stored at room temperature for about 6 months. The advantages are thorough sterilization and long shelf life, and the disadvantages are affecting nutrition, flavor and color. Representative products are tin cans and aluminum foil wrapped meat products.

Low temperature meat products: pasteurized, central temperature 68-72℃ for 30 minutes. The advantages are to retain flavor and nutrition, good taste, moderate protein denaturation, and high nutrient utilization. The disadvantage is that it cannot be completely sterilized, requires high raw materials, needs low temperature storage and transportation, and costs are high.

Chinese meat products: including pickled, sauce, barbecue, dry and other five categories.

Western meat products: foreign processes, mainly including bacon, sausage and ham three categories.

2.Development status of meat industry

Meat is a major consumer product in the world, and China's demand and output will increase by 2.47% and 2.81% respectively in 2024. Pork products accounted for 60% of the market, while poultry and beef products increased in consumption due to increased health awareness, accounting for 26% and 10% respectively. Boneless chicken feet, pork breast and ready-to-eat chicken breast are the most popular. Women are the main consumer of meat products, accounting for 65%, and people aged 30-50 are the main consumer group. Fresh meat consumption accounted for 51%, ham, spiced meat products, dried and preserved meat products accounted for 16%, 13%, 11% and 9% respectively. Consumers pay the most attention to safety, followed by price and brand taste, and pay the least attention to nutritional value.

3.The use of various additives in meat products

Meat additives are divided into two categories: on-demand addition and limited addition. There are more unlimited additives in children's meat puree, meat floss and beef jerky, while 47.9% of the products contain 1-5 limited additives and 19.6% contain 6-10 kinds. Highly processed meat products such as ham sausage, pickled pepper chicken feet, etc., have a wide range of limited additives, including preservatives, color guards, colorants, moisture retention agents and antioxidants, aimed at improving color, taste and shelf life. Nitrite and sorbate are used as color protectants and preservatives respectively.

4.Sodium content of meat products

Among the nine popular meat products, only the sodium content of ready-to-eat chicken breast was less than 600mg/100g, and was 456mg/100g. Pickled pepper chicken feet had the highest sodium content, reaching 1,658 mg/100g, followed by pork breast, duck neck, boneless chicken feet, beef jerky, ham, cold rabbit and lunch meat. Salt reduction is the social responsibility of food enterprises, which should pay attention to salt reduction in the research and development stage to protect the health of consumers.

5.Protein content of meat products

According to the provisions of GB 28050-2011, protein content ≥20%NRV/100g can be called high protein. The lowest value was 4.6g/100g for children. The average protein content of luncheon meat and ham was 12.2-15.6g/100g. The mean protein content of instant chicken breast was 27.2-30.8g/100g. Beef jerky has the highest protein content, 45.5g/100g.

6.Fat content of meat products

Ready-to-eat chicken breast and children's puree had the lowest fat content at 1.2g/100g and 2.4g/100g respectively. Other products such as steak, beef jerky and other fat content between 4.8-9.4g/100g. Under the "big health" trend, low-fat foods are favored by young consumers, and high-protein, low-fat products such as ready-to-eat chicken breasts are popular. Manufacturers launched related products for the fitness crowd, gained market recognition, and brought new vitality to the meat industry.

7.Summary and analysis

Meat products are faced with many additives and high sodium content, so it is necessary to improve the process and ingredient structure to meet the needs of consumers for clean labels. High-salt and high-oil diet is harmful to health, and food enterprises should reduce the use of salt and oil and fulfill their social responsibilities. Healthy, functional meat products are popular with consumers, and enterprises need to accurately target consumer groups and develop products suitable for different groups of people.

If you would like to learn more about the food industry, please visit the SIAL Shanghai website for more information.

Source: Meat Products Alliance

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