With the rapid development of China's economy, people's pace of life and living water products are also getting higher and higher. Now people have turned "eating" from the pursuit of satiety to the pursuit of nutrition and taste. In addition, most people do not want to spend too much time on cooking, so a new product - conditioning meat products is developing rapidly, and this convenient family meal semi-finished product industry is rising rapidly.

Conditioned meat products generally refer to a series of flavored meat products made from livestock, poultry and fish as the main raw materials, through appropriate processing, adding (or not adding) vegetables and auxiliary materials, food additives, rolling (or not rolling) molding, pretreatment, packaging, cooling (freezing) and other processes, which can be eaten directly or through simple processing. At present, more and more consumers have more knowledge about conditioning and eating, especially the features of convenient eating, balanced nutrition, and exquisite packaging attract consumers.

1. Development of conditioned meat products in China Classification of conditioned meat products:

(1) According to processing methods and transportation, marketing and storage characteristics, it can be divided into: normal temperature type, low temperature type, refrigerated type and frozen type;

(2) According to the edible method, it can be divided into: instant type, direct heating type, indirect heating type, microwave heating type;

(3) According to packaging materials, it can be divided into bag type, tray film type, casserole type, aluminum product type, etc;

(4) According to the sales target, it can be divided into: family dining type, group feeding type, catering industry type, and "eating out" type;

(5) According to the degree of raw and cooked food, it can be divided into: cooked food, semi cooked food and raw food.

In recent years, the development of conditioned meat products in China is very rapid, especially in large and medium-sized cities with relatively developed economy.

At present, the growth rate of recuperated food in China is more than 10% every year, from the initial Chinese dim sum to the development of Western semi-finished products and frozen dishes. With more and more enterprises developing such products, especially convenient family dishes, consumers are also very willing to accept conditioning products, which is more prominent in the first tier cities in the south.

However, at present, our country's conditioned meat products are mainly frozen conditioned poultry products, and the main production technology depends on the product importing country, usually according to the factory building and production technology standards provided by the importing country. The key technologies are mainly controlled by foreign technicians, and the export volume and transaction price depend on the importing country, which seriously restricts the rapid development of our meat enterprises. It is of great significance to carry out research on the key technologies and product development of the processing of frozen conditioned meat products, form China's independent intellectual property rights, get rid of the technical blockade and market restrictions of developed countries, and enhance the international market competitiveness of China's meat enterprises to promote the development of China's conditioned meat products processing industry.

2. Advantages of conditioning meat products

2.1 Variety

There are many kinds of prepared meat products, accounting for more than 1/2 of nearly 3000 kinds of frozen food. According to different types of raw materials and different processing methods, a variety of prepared foods can be made. At present, there are more and more prepared foods on the market, such as meat and bone linked, chicken fillet, pizza, hamburger, fried chicken and other western fast food, prepared chicken, pickled pork and other food that can be eaten after a little processing.

2.2 Nutritional balance

Conditioning food has great advantages over other meat products in the collocation of raw materials and excipients. It can control the content of oil, cholesterol, salt, additives, etc. through different collocation for different consumer groups to choose. Nutrition and balanced diet are the pursuit of the food industry and consumers today. However, many people now have a monotonous diet due to lack of cooking knowledge, insufficient cooking time, etc. Therefore, conditioning meat products can solve the complex problem of cooking, and can be eaten only through simple cooking.

2.3 Safety and health

Conditioned meat products are in a whole low-temperature chain from the acceptance of raw materials to transportation and sales to cooking. In some processing processes, they are still frozen at about - 20 ℃, which can well control the growth of microorganisms. At the same time, low temperature can also reduce the loss of nutrients. On the other hand, conditioning meat products also have strict production management specifications, and have good quality supervision throughout the production process. Therefore, safety and health are also one of the advantages of conditioning meat products.

2.4 Convenient and fast cooking

The idea of conditioning meat products is to eliminate the cleaning, pickling, seasoning and other steps before cooking, and can directly microwave, fry, steam and cook the conditioning meat products, saving consumers, especially office workers, cooking time, fast and convenient.

3. Technical research on conditioning meat products in China

3.1 Low temperature preservation technology

Low temperature preservation is to prevent the deterioration of meat products, ensure the safety of meat products and extend the shelf life by reducing the storage environment temperature of meat products and reducing the growth and reproduction of microorganisms. The optimal growth and reproduction speed of most microorganisms is 20-40 ℃, so low temperature storage can better inhibit the growth and reproduction of microorganisms, thus improving food safety.

Conditioning meat products are usually produced and packaged at 0-10 ℃, and stored below - 18 ℃. Therefore, it can inhibit the growth of most microorganisms and effectively extend the shelf life of meat products. However, because meat products will freeze in the frozen state, which will have a certain impact on their moisture, flavor and nutritional components, especially the moisture content, it requires quick freezing as much as possible when warehousing for freezing.

Ice temperature technology is an excellent storage method. It uses the temperature range from 0 ℃ to the freezing point of biological tissue to keep food fresh and unfrozen, and retain the original state and nutrients of food to the greatest extent. At present, the application of ice temperature technology in conditioning meat products in China has not been reported.

3.2 Sterilization technology

With the rapid development of conditioned meat products, their safety is becoming more and more important, so it requires continuous improvement of sterilization technology in the production or packaging process. The following are several kinds of sterilization methods that have been widely studied and are suitable for conditioning meat products:

① Food preservatives

With the gradual improvement of national quality, consumers in China are paying more and more attention to food safety. Therefore, using some natural preservatives to keep meat fresh has gradually become the goal of researchers. Among them, sodium lactate is a natural food additive, which has great advantages over potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate and other preservatives. There are many researches on the application of sodium lactate in meat preservation at home and abroad. It can prolong the shelf life of meat products and has obvious effects. Another concern in the meat industry is tea polyphenols. Tea multi powder (TP) is a kind of multi radical phenolic substance extracted from tea. Its antiseptic and fresh-keeping functions mainly include antioxidation, bacteriostasis and free radical scavenging. It can inhibit pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, so it is used as one of the commonly used fresh-keeping agents for meat products. Studies have shown that tea polyphenols can significantly inhibit the growth of mixed bacteria in Western style ham.

② Irradiation sterilization

Irradiation is energy emitted and transmitted through space and media. Irradiation preservation of food is an important preservation technology. The patent was invented in 1929. Electromagnetic wave can be divided into microwave, ultraviolet, X-ray and γ The shorter the wavelength, the more destructive to microorganisms. Some studies show that the number of microorganisms will gradually decrease with the increase of irradiation dose, and the sensory quality and color will not be affected.

3.3 Packaging technology

① Vacuum packaging

The vacuum packaging technology originated in the 1940s. It uses the method of removing the air from the package and the sealing technology to control the growth and reproduction of microorganisms, prevent the deterioration of food, and effectively prevent food from being oxidized, which is conducive to improving the flavor and taste. In general,

Vacuum packaging should also be combined with the storage environment temperature (0-4 ℃) to ensure the shelf life of food. Generally, the shelf life of meat products after vacuum packaging is more than 30 days. However, vacuum packaging also has some disadvantages, such as color loss and juice loss.

② Modified atmosphere packaging

Modified atmosphere packaging is to change the air components in the environment around food, so as to extend the shelf life. Modified atmosphere packaging mainly uses nitrogen or carbon dioxide. In the 1970s, some developed countries in Europe and America used modified atmosphere packaging to store cold fresh meat.

At present, modified atmosphere packaging has been widely used in the meat industry, but this method requires centralized processing, and the environment and temperature need to be controlled consistently. In addition, in the process of meat products processing, what kind of packaging materials or biofilms can be selected to provide the necessary security and permeability, and some new packaging technologies are the focus of future research.

4. The future trend of conditioning meat products

Conditioned meat products have been very popular in Europe, America, Japan and other developed countries, and are still in the development stage at home. Conditioned food has great development potential because of its small impact on international competition, high accessory value and demand for local taste. In particular, local snacks or local flavor foods have a good market prospect after standardized production process.

In recent years, with the rapid progress of urbanization in China, the number of urban population in China has exceeded that of rural population last year, and there are more and more young consumers. The consumption concept changes rapidly. In addition, due to work or living habits and other reasons, the time to do housework has also decreased dramatically. This kind of convenient and nutritious conditioning meat products should have broad market prospects.