MEAT EXTRACTS AND MEAT JUICES[AU]
Their Composition and Relative Values
The Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture has recently given in Bulletin No. 114 much new and valuable data regarding the commercial meat products. The work contained in this bulletin is practically an elaboration or continuation of that published in The Journal of May 11, 1907, p. 1612. It was taken up to determine the condition and quality of meat preparations in general and from the results obtained to prepare tentative standards for the preparation and composition of such meat preparations. The results as well as the methods of analysis of many meat products are given, showing the composition and relative value of the various preparations. The comments of many investigators regarding the food value of such products is also a valuable contribution to the knowledge of meat extracts, and will help in deciding the real value of the preparations.
The preparations taken up are divided into three general classes (1) Solid and Fluid Meat Extracts; (2) Meat Juices; (3) Miscellaneous Preparations. For each of these the tentative standards submitted by the Committee on Food Standards of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists are given along with the tabulated results of the chemical analysis. The preparations examined showed, for the most part, that they conformed to the standards, and only those which are at variance in one or more particulars will be mentioned in this review.
SOLID MEAT EXTRACTS
For solid meat extracts the following are the requirements:
“Meat extract is the product obtained by extracting meat with boiling water and concentrating the liquid portion by evaporation after removal of fat, and contains not less than 75 per cent. total solids of which not over 27 per cent. is ash and not over 12 per cent. is sodium chlorid (calculated from the total chlorin present), not over 0.6 per cent. is fat and not less than 7 per cent. is nitrogen. The nitrogenous compounds contain not less than 40 per cent. of meat bases and not less than 10 per cent. of kreatin.”
With the above as the standard, several of the solid meat extract preparations examined were not up to grade on one or more points, though in some cases it is true they were very slightly below the standard set. The following products were found wanting in some respects and the requirements which they failed to meet are given:
“Rex” Brand Beef Extract (Cudahy Packing Co., Omaha) contained 26.50 per cent. water instead of the standard 25 per cent.