THE INFLUENCE OF LOW-TEMPERATURE LONG-TIME PRO-CESSING ON STRUCTURAL, MECHANICAL AND ORGANOLEPTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF PORK PRODUCTS

A promising area for improving the technological process of meat product manufacturing is the use of moderate temperature treatment regimes to bring them to a state of culinary readiness. For the successful industrial implementation of low-temperature long-time processing, it is necessary to develop regimes based on the scientific justification of the temperature-duration ratio to achieve all the desired quality characteristics of the finished product. The article presents the results of experimental studies of the influence of temperature processing parameters of pork meat in the production of cooked and smoked-cooked pork balyk on the microstructure, structural, mechanical, organoleptic and technological properties of finished meat products. The results show that the use of low-temperature processing has a significant positive effect on product characteristics. In particular, the baliks prepared at low temperatures are characterised by mass losses: cooked 7,3%, smoked-cooked 15,7%, baliks made according to traditional methods have losses of 12,5% and 12,7% more. The experimental samples are characterised by lower shear stresses and higher plasticity values than the control samples, which indicates a more delicate consistency. The analysis of the microstructural study results showed that the control cooked samples have more compact and thinner muscle fibers, with microcracks and tears observed. The muscle fibers of the experimental products are more swollen and intact. The baliks produced using the developed thermal treatment regimes had better organoleptic indicators, taste, and sensory characteristics. The results suggest that low-temperature long-time processing is quite promising and has a positive impact on the characteristics of finished meat products. The implementation of the developed regimes in the meat industry will enable the production of whole-muscle meat products with high quality, compared to products made using traditional methods, as well as reduce production costs.