44—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 7, 1973
Progress In Mechanically Deboned Poultry Products
Dr. Joseph Mac Neil
Professor of Food Science
Penn State
(Editor's Note: Dr. Mac Neil
presented a roundup of research
and progress in the mechanical
deboning of poultry meat at a
recent Mid-Atlantic turkey
conference sponsored by the
Northeastern Poultry Producers
Council. The following is a
summary of his remarks.)
Mechanically deboned poultry
meat is a relatively new product
The industry has had deboned
meat for quite some time now,
but this mainly consisted of
removing muscles from car
casses and using it in that form.
Mechanically deboned poultry
meat, or MDPM, is meat that has
been removed from broiler necks
or backs, turkey racks or spent
laying hens The removal of this
meat from these raw materials is
done by mechanical means,
hence the term, mechanically
deboned poultry meat. At the
present time there are several
machines on the market that are
capable of performing this task
but the capacities of these
machines lend themselves to use
only in larger processing plants.
The capacities of some of these
machines run approximately
2,000 pounds of raw product per
hour with yields being reported
on some of them up to 70 per cent
It is obvious of course that by
recovering this meat the industry
has in essence upgraded the
economic value of broiler necks
and backs, turkey frames and
spent layers Instead of this
material going primarily into
animal food manufacture if
material can now be used in
many food products such as
frankfurters, bologne, turkey
rolls, chicken rolls, spreads of
various types or any product that
could use raw meat in this
particular torm
Several years ago when these
machines were first introduced,
the quality of the output made
many users of this product pretty
discouraged because of inherent
flavor problems The process
itself consists of reducing the
particle size of the meat product.
P. L ROHRER & BRO., INC.
SMOKETOWN, PA.
and then exerting very high
pressures on the material which
sets up a condition favorable for
oxidative flavor changes as well
as making nutrients more readily
available to microorganisms.
Several years ago we at Penn
State became ry interested in
the problems of this product since
we had two Pennsylvania based
plants producing the material. At
that point the product was very
poorly characterized and the
processing guidelines were really
not very well established and
consequently, several problems
developed which later on were
solved.
The proximate analysis of
material evaluated at Penn. State
had percent protein ranging from
9 3 up to 14.2 per cent and fat
ranging all the way from 12.7 per
cent up to 27. 2 per cent.
If you compare this with,
ground turkey, you would find
that ground turkey has 24 per
cent protein and 10 per cent fat
and 66 per cent water; whole
fresh egg has 12.9 per cent
protein, 11.5 per cent fat and 73
per cent water. When cooked this
material looks very much like
ground beef and when you
Baum Elected President
Of E-town 4-H Club
The Elizabethtown Area Pig
and Rabbit 4-H Club held its
reorgamzational meeting last
Thursday at the Union
Schoolhouse, Maytown Road
The meeting was brought to
order by Club Leader J Warren
Heisey After the opening
procedures members filled out
enrollment cards.
The following is the result of
the election of officers: Dan
Baum, president, Wesley Gerber,
vice-president, Scott Heisey,
secretary-treasurer, Barbara
Myer, news reporter; Michelle
Grove, song leader, and Stephen
Horton, game leader
Barbara Myer was elected to
represent the Club on County"
Council' Dan Baum, Scott
Heisey, Wes Gerber and Barb
Myer volunteered to serve as
teen leadeis for the upcoming
year
Phone Lane. 397-3539
compare this to the proximate
analysis of ground beef you find
that ground beef has 18 per cent
protein, 21 per cent fat and 60 per
cent moisture. So in examining
these figures we can see that we
have an excellent food source
which compares favorably with
many food products presently on
the market. When amino acid
patterns were examined it was
found that the amino acid pattern
of MDPM compare favorably
with eggs, beef and milk.
Some of the studies conducted
at Penn State included the use of
sensory taste panel evaluations
in order to determine the op
timum storage and handling
conditions for this product. It was
established very quickly that this
material should not be stored in a
refrigerated state for any period
of time but rather should be
frozen immediately to prevent
any of the undesirable changes
that y/e had mentioned earlier.
In our studies on microorganism
levels we found that care must be
taken to see that initial levels are
very low and we also found that
there is some reduction in
numbers during frozen storage of
MDPM.
Mr. Heisey discussed the
project requirements and some
future activities with the
members.
The next meeting will be held
April 26 at the Union
Schoolhouse. Prospective
members between the ages of
eight and 19 are urged to attend
this meeting News Reporter,
Barb Myer
L ji' 1 ,; ,1c
- VENTILATED
ENVIRONMENT
vf >) I \i}‘ } '‘ ! ' CONTROL
THERE ARE
MORE THAN
THREE SIDES
TO THE
HOG
CONFINEMENT
QUESTION
Bit j Dutchman.
USB
mammmm a us.inoustries coivipaimv.
And that makaa a world of diffaranca.
EASTERN BRANCH
215 Diller Ave., New Holland, Pa. 17557
After the initial experiments
were conducted on identifying
problems with this material and
establishing the exact charac
teristics of the various types
available, several additional
experiments were conducted
involving the use of what we term
quality, maintenance compounds
which proved to be effective in
maintaining, initial high
quality. Compounds used in this
particular test were a rosemary
Nearly ten years of testing and farm ex
perience have taught us that there are
many sides to the question of which
type of finishing facility is best for the
hog producer. Many producers favor the
open-front, gravity ventilation type of fa
cility. We have all the Big Dutchman
equipment necessary for the open-front
facility. Other producers favor a total
environmental control finishing facility.
Such a facility provides greater control of
the hog’s environment, whatever the cli
matic conditions outside, through the Big
Dutchman Evap-O-Pad ventilation system
and the use of partial slats.
Open-front or total environmental con
trol, let us help you put it all together l
Whichever side of the question you take,
we have the equipment you need.
spice extractive - (RSE) BHA
citric acid and polyphosphate.
These were all found to be ef
fective in maintaining lower TBA
values, high taste panel flavor
responses and a reduction of
bacterial numbers.
We are conducting additional
experiments to see if further
improvements can be made with
this material so that it can reach
its potential as a very important
raw food ingredient material.
, jm
Phone 717-354-5168