58 th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology, 12-17 th August 2012, Montreal, Canada HISTOCHEMICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FOUR MAJOR MUSCLES OF THE HAM Carlier M. 1 , Martin J.L. 1 , Vautier A. 2 , Gault E. 2 , Bombrun L. 1,3 , Burton O. 4 , Loison O. 3 , Danon J. 3 , Santé-Lhoutellier V. 3 and Astruc T. 3 1 IFIP, French institute for pig and pork industry, F-94700 Maisons-Alfort, France, 2 IFIP, French institute for pig and pork industry, F-3500 Le Rheu, France, 3 INRA, UR370 Qualité des Produits Animaux, 63122 Saint Genès Champanelle, France 4 ADIV, process engineering, technology and products quality department, F-63039 Clermont-Ferrand Cedex, France Abstract – Reduction of salt content in processed food is an important issue for both human nutrition and industry. Ham is composed of different muscles and the impact of salt reduction on each of them is unknown. To analyze and understand the effect of salting on the evolution of ham, it is essential to know the characteristics of muscles before applying any technological treatment. Muscles semi- membranosus, biceps femoris, rectus femoris and gluteus medius were selected on their physiological differences. These muscles were finely characterized in their structure and biochemical composition. Each muscle was then cured and cooked with two brines, which brought respectively 1.3% and 1.8% of sodium chloride in the meat. Cooking yield was determined. Significant differences were observed between muscles for physical, biochemical or histological parameters of non-cured muscles and between muscles and salt contents for cooking yield. Thus, muscle characteristics have to be taken into account in any study on the optimization of salting meat. Key Words – cooking yield, histology, meat quality, muscle composition I. INTRODUCTION Premium cooked ham is a major product for the French pork meat industry. In 2010, 203 007 t of “superior cooked ham” were manufactured in France, accounting for 21% of total volume of French manufactured pork meat products. Nevertheless, in France, premium cooked ham is one of the least salted pork meat products, with a sodium chloride mean content of 2.09 g/100g. Furthermore addition of phosphates is not allowed. The Fédération Française des Industriels Charcutiers Traiteurs engaged its members through a Charter for volunteer nutritional progress, signed with the Health Minister to go on with lowering sodium in premium cooked ham, as in some other pork meat products. The knowledge of the raw material, in terms of biochemical, physical and histological properties is the first step of a large project to be able to develop a mass transfer mathematical model in ham with reduced salt content. From the 26 muscles, which are partially or completely included in the ham fabrication, 4 muscles, semi-membranosus (SM), biceps femoris (BF), rectus femoris (RF) and gluteus medius (GM) were chosen for both economical significance and various metabolic muscle properties [1,2]. The objective was to characterize finely these four muscles and imitate the manufacturing process at laboratory to establish the relationship between structure, composition and evolution of the product with variable salt levels. Biochemical and structural data gave a solid characterization of the muscles. These results allowed the study of cooking loss evolution according to muscles characteristics. II. MATERIALS AND METHODS 8 pork gilt carcasses (Large-White x Landrace female and Pietrain male), 6 month old were selected on the basis of post slaughter weight (90.4 kg to 99.2 kg), pHu in the SM (5.60 to 5.80) and lean yield (56% to 62% lean meat). One day after slaughter the muscles (BF, GM, RF, and SM) were collected from the carcass, trimmed from fat and connective tissue, weighed and sampled for 24 h post mortem measurements. After sampling, the muscles were individually vacuum packed and stored at 4°C for 24 h before processing.