Meat/Fish

MINERALS
A number of minerals are used in the meat industry as preservative. Preservatives are used to preserve food by preventing the growth of micro-organisms and subsequent spoilage, including moulds yeasts and bacteria.

Potassium and sodium nitrite, Potassium and sodium nitrate.

Citrates are also used in the meat industry where they act as antioxidants. They prevent the product from becoming rancid, turning brown or developing black spots. The following citrates are approved for use in meat products.

Monosodium, Disodium and Trisodium citrate, Monopotassium and tripotassium citrate, Monocalcium, dicalcium and tricalcium citrate

MEAT AND FISH BINDER

• Activa – Transglutaminase

Activa is Ajinomoto’s brand of Transglutaminase, which is an enzyme that occurs widely in nature. It has been used successfully by the European and Japanese meat, fish, and dairy industries for a number of years.

Ajinomoto Co. Inc is the first company to successfully produce it in commercial scale via fermentation.

Activa catalyses the formation of stable, fine protein networks by creating covalent bonds between two amino acids: glutamine (G) and lysine (L).

These so-called G-L bonds are very stable. Once formed, these bonds are heat resistant.

PRODUCT RANGE
Activa is available in a number of different forms, depending on application:

• Activa EB
• Activa GS
• Activa WM

APPLICATIONS
Activa EB is used by the fish and meat industry to bind pieces of fish or meat together. Activa EB is used for:

• Portion control
• Add value to meat off-cuts

Some of the benefits of Activa EB are:

• No need to use heating / freezing for binding
• Possible to slice the recombined meat in the raw state
• Easy to handle, no effect on flavour.

Activa GS is also used for binding, but it was developed specifically for the fish and seafood industries. Based on fish gelatine, it is very easy to handle and has excellent binding strength.

Activa WM is used to improve the structure of fish, cooked meats, hams and sausages. Activa WM is used for:

• Standardizing texture
• Improving sliceability
• Improvement of breaking strength
• Adding more juiciness
• Substitution of other ingredients (e.g. phosphates)