Development of High Quality Shelf Stable Extruded

Developmental work on extruded meat in carbohydrate matrix jerky products has been done at the U.S. Army's Natick research laboratories. The most successful of these efforts has involved processing potato carbohydrate flake with lean comminuted beef, various flavorants and plasticizers in a twin screw extruder. The resulting jerky is cut into strips, packaged with oxygen scavengers and heat aged at 125¿F. After only four eeks of this accelerated storage, however, significant toughening of the jerky occurs, resulting in an unacceptable product. Foster-Miller believes the solution to the problem lies in a designed matrix evaluation of both physical and chemical interactions between and within the protein and carbohydrate phases. The Phase I program is structured to systematically produce samples and evaluate the effects of processing conditions and formulation variables. Evaluation will include visual observation, texture anaysis, water activity measurement, proton NMR, DSC, and DNA measurements. Formulational variables we will consider during Phase I include both type and level of plasticizer. Measurements will be taken both immediately after extension and after varying times during accelerated storage. The results of this experimentation will enable Foster-Miller to develop an improved meat in carbohydrate matrix jerky snack in Phase II for field evaluation as a MERC/PERC and having significant commercial value. Successful development of a meat-in-carbohydrate matrix jerky product will enable troops to consume a high carbohydrate and protein diet with minimal preparation while performing mission essential tasks such as marching or maintaining operational security. This in turn will greatly reduce the Army's logistical burden of feeding its troops for short but crucial periods of time. Potential commercial applications are in camping and athletic foods as well as the huge snack food market.