Drying of Meat: Benefits and Challenges

Introduction - The recent COVID-19 pandemic resulted in disruption of the food supply chains posing a severe threat of food insecurity in many of the developing countries like India. Even after the pandemic, the challenge of protein malnutrition still remains high due to the lack of proper cold storage facilities for highly perishable food items such as meat in several developing countries. In order to tackle the worldwide food shortage and to ensure a sustainable supply, the long term preservation of meat is highly imperative.

- Pramod Kumar¹", Suman Bishnoi ¹ and Sanjay Yadav¹

Meat drying is a popular method of meat preservation with a long history in several civilizations all over the world. Dried meat has gained popularity as a food item in contemporary times due to its extended shelf life, delectable flavour, and beneficial health properties. A few examples of dried meat products from throughout the world are “Pastirma” in Turkey, “jerky” in North America, “carnede-sol” in Brazil, “biltong” in South Africa, “kaddid” in North Africa, “cecina” in Spain, and “kheuri” in Sikkim (India). These meat products are a consequence of dehydrating whole muscles or crushed and formed meats in order to significantly lower the water content in the meat and so prevent the growth of microorganisms and biochemical processes, hence extending the shelf-life and enhancing the quality.

Along with the vast variety of dehydrated meat products comes a plethora of meat-drying methods which include hot air drying, cold drying, sun drying, vacuum drying, ultrasonic drying, freeze-drying, microwave drying, heat pump drying, pulsed electric field drying, and refractance window drying. Although these methods are successful in drying meat, it is thought that those that call for greater temperatures damage the meat’s vital components and lower the quality of the dried meat. Nevertheless, a variety of dried meat products are available, depending on the type of meat used, how it is dried, and the inclusion of spices.

Advantages of dried meat products